Settlement

Sleep eluded her. Frank’s periods of apnea lasted as long as thirty seconds, allowing Stella to listen to the ancient house creaking, in response to imperceptible shifts of earth beneath it. But I won’t settle, she decided. I will leave tomorrow. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Deborah Jones is a retired TV news writer/producer with a passion for red wine, wombats, and Oxford commas—not necessarily in that order.