Deborah was a well-formed woman of twenty-six. Tall, long of leg, and wide of hip. Under the white muslin cap and black bonnet, her hair was arranged in thick, springy coils. Her dark eyes were kind but canny.
Like many of the women of the Pinelands, she had some wortcunning that she plied in an attempt to keep each of her twelve children alive through gripe and fever, abscessed tooth and bloody flux. That Deborah was more successful at this than most made her neighbors believe the family was especially blessed.
Her husband, some thirty years older than Deborah and bemused by the attention, was fairly certain they were cursed instead…
Short story in Kaiju Rising II, Outland Publications, Nov. 2018. Click for more information.
Sabrina Vourvoulias 