Stephanie Vaughn was born in Ohio and raised in Ohio, New York, Texas, Oklahoma, the Philippines, and Italy. She attended The Ohio State University, the University of Iowa and Stanford University. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker as well as in anthologies, including American Short Stories Since 1945, A Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction: Fifty North American Stories Since 1970, and The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories. She is a two-time recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, and has received a Southern Review Award for Short Fiction. She is a professor of English at Cornell University.
When I awoke, I did not recognize the window. The snow had stopped and moonlight slanted through the glass. I could not make out the words, but I heard my…