I FIRST SAW this machine in the student union building at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. CMU is a way station in my various running routes, kind of a middle point where I can go to the bathroom, hydrate, and maybe even answer a text or two

QUESTIONS WERE on Matthew’s mind. I’d seen that look on my grandson’s face many times. It was a Saturday evening—the beginning of a sleepover weekend—and the two of us were eating dinner. Stouffer’s lasagna, his favorite. “What if our Milky Way galax

YOUNG TREES GLOW with branches that double as lamp posts, bringing gold warmth to the blue light that engulfs the mist-shrouded island of Teldrassil, home of the night elves. Plants and trees in shades of green, pink, purple, and lavender shroud the

WE’RE NOT SURE if we’re going to make it—through the card game or through this stage of our relationship. I sit at the dining table with my gaming partner, my husband of eight years, Kylie. We are not a fighting couple, but lately, we’ve been having

LATE ON MY FIRST DAY out of the fallout shelter, I wander into Flatwoods, West Virginia. I can hear weapons fire in the distance, and footsteps, both of which make me wary, but the message that was left for me outside the fallout shelter said to head

A FEW MORNINGS AGO, I found myself wandering through my house, searching for my five-year-old son. “Where, oh where, is my beloved Jeffrey?” I cried. “I’m starting to get worried!” What I was feeling, in truth, was not worry—I’d already spotted Jeffr