Safe Landing , by Michael Braswell      The harvest that grew in the loamy soil in the county of Suffolk would have to wait after the Americans arrived.  Crushed stones from broken pieces of London transformed wheat fields and vegetable gardens into runways where instruments of survival and retribution descended in droves. In short order, farm fields became airfields, home to B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators complements of the United States Eighth Air Force.    The

In a chemistry classroom somewhere along the Gulf Coast, students struggle to complete a laboratory experiment involving colorful liquids in glass test tubes while their teacher looks on. A mounted television monitor is tuned to the weather channel. The sound is muted, but it’s clear from the map that a major hurricane is headed towards the city.   *   Stiltski (“it’s Polish,” he tells everyone, even though he is clearly not of Polish descent), the smallest boy from the chemi

He began drumming the fingers of his right hand lightly against the tumbler, its cut glass cooled by the ice and what remained of the bourbon. It was an aimless rhythm that signified nothing save his apprehension. He ground out the butt of one cigarette and shook another from the half-empty pack on the polished mahogany bar, snapped open his silver lighter and put flame to tobacco, drawing deeply. Nearly ten years he’d gone without nicotine. Then came the prospect of seeing h