The Broach
A short story by Jill Kelley
Published in
7 min readNov 7, 2020
Francine McQueen swirled her paintbrush around inside a mason jar full of water, wiped it off on a paper towel, then set it aside to dry. She inspected each of the five palm-sized rocks onto which she had painted whimsical faces with mesmerizing eyes. It was her hobby to participate in “Hometown Rocks,” a club where folks in the community would paint rocks, hide them around town, and post…
