Little Surrenders

"Little Surrenders" is a dark, mesmerizing short story about a marriage that's reached its breaking point, and just how far a woman will go to reinvent herself after one too many compromises.

She makes a list; she'll need it if she's going to escape the life she's built. A week's worth of clothes. Seven thousand dollars in cash. A new identity. A gun, to be sure. Maybe the list itself will be enough to erase all of the little surrenders that have brought her to this place.

After all, as she tells herself and her friends: Mike's a great husband, and she loves him. If she can just find a way to hang on a little longer, maybe she can discover enough of herself to make those lies true again.

But with each step forward - from stashing the cash to obtaining a false identity to others she didn't anticipate - she finds herself accelerating down a steep slope, surprised that she's enjoying the fall and getting to know the stranger she may actually be.