Pools of water glisten where tidy lawns once grew. Streams gurgle and rush along the roads. With the kids gathered close, we lean from windows and perch on roofs. The more fortunate propel themselves around town in dinghies. They hail us. “Neighbor,” they call to those they once ignored. “Friend!”

Katherine Gleason’s stories have appeared in journals such as Cheap Pop, Derelict Lit, Every Day Fiction, Gone Lawn, Hobart, Juked, Jellyfish Review, and Menacing Hedge. Her play “The Toe Incident” won the Christopher Hewitt Award for Drama in 2020.