Ross McMeekin is author of a story collection, Below the Falls (Thirty West, 2024), and a novel, The Hummingbirds (Skyhorse, 2018). His short fiction has appeared in publications such as Virginia Quarterly Review, X-R-A-Y, Vol.1 Brooklyn, and Shenandoah. He’s won fellowships from Hugo House and Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle.
Next to me at the intersection stands a young boy, hands in jacket pockets, hair the brown of thebrittle leaves in the street gutter. Autumn. The anniversary of my younger sister’s accidentaldeath, by drowning—a...