Andrea Rinard

Andrea Rinard is a veteran high school English teacher whose midlife luxury is writing. She has work in some of her favorite literary magazines, including The Jellyfish Review, Spelk, and Crack the Spine, and her YA manuscript recently won the Key West Literary Seminar’s 2020 Marianne Russo Award for a novel-in-progress. A native Floridian who wears shoes against her will, Rinard lives in Tampa with her three kids and her 1988 Prom date. You can find her online at www.writerinard.com and on Twitter @aprinard.

THE HANDS REMEMBER by Andrea Rinard

February 26, 2020 · Fiction

I sit on the bench outside Publix. A little boy ran by me in light-up sneakers when I was almost, almost, almost to the door, and suddenly I could hear Caleb’s feet, encased like two meat loaves in the shoes I got him before he started K-3, drumming against the cart. He was so careful not to kick me after that one time–Don’t hurt Mommy! I’d had to let go of the cart and sit down because everything was narrowing down to a tunnel with Caleb at the other end. I tried to count my breaths, and I told Tom…

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