Summer Shorts is back. Every other Thursday at 6 PM, we gather to read a short story together: silently, all at once, with nowhere else to be. The story is unveiled when you arrive. No preparation required. Just show up, settle in, and let the rest of your week fall away.

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This session we read Marie-Helene Bertino, who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and moved to New York in 2003, where she worked as a biographer for people living with traumatic brain injuries. She spent six years as an editor at One Story and has since completed a certificate in end-of-life facilitation. Bertino writes about ordinary people and then bends the world around them. In Beautyland, a baby born the same moment Voyager 1 launches turns out to be an alien sent to report on humans. In Parakeet, a bride's dead grandmother shows up as a bird.

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Tonight's story comes from Exit Zero, her second collection, rooted in the small-town rhythms of the Jersey Shore. We'll read one together and see where the conversation goes. Happy hour pricing at the cafe. No RSVP required, but it always helps us plan.