If Richard was going to commit suicide—and this time, he really was—he wasn’t about to make some elaborate production of it. He refused to leave behind a situation which needed cleaning up. That meant not hanging himself, not slitting his… Continue Reading
When I was nine, my dad warned me about the dangers of dreaming. “You know, it’s like if you drink too much water, it shuts down the electrical connections and you just keel on over,” he’d said in his woodchip… Continue Reading
In New Zealand, there’s a candy assortment of gangs. Most often, they ride on motorcycles, deal in narcotics, prostitution, illegal guns and fear. Recruitment’s booming as New Zealand’s underpaid police scarper to Australia, and dysfunctional kids clamber up the criminal… Continue Reading
After our boss quit the senior executives replaced him with a coffee machine. They said that the consultant had delivered his report and that the replacement was appropriate and cost effective. Each morning we gathered around the shiny appliance and… Continue Reading
Jacob, a TV journalist for a regional station, was setting up the shot with Tommy, his cameraman, when Eris first approached him. “I saw what happened,” she said. “You saw the trampoline take off?” Jacob asked, giving her a quick… Continue Reading
We had chosen our baseball teams in the alley behind our houses like always and started to walk down the block to the special lot, the one we still called our prairie; the only open space left in our neighborhood… Continue Reading
Every time my grandpa, my mother’s father, visited us he always brought a crate of fruits or vegetables, whatever he just harvested. I remember I was in second grade when he came by with the crate and asked how I… Continue Reading
“Beware of the Ides of March,” Madame Hannah said, picking up the tarot card with its stormy-looking tower. The woman tapped her long black fingernails on the card. Bree wondered how the woman was able to shuffle with nails that… Continue Reading
40th reunion. 40. How did she get so old so fast? She was popular and had plans. A “most likely to…” type. Succeed. Be on TV. Own a beach house in La Jolla. She did none of that and didn’t… Continue Reading
My prehistoric grandmother, exemplar of Generation W (W for Waste), shamelessly threw away new, unopened packets of Tico’s Tacos “sizzlin’ hot” salsa. Decades later I’m haggling with squatters to excavate Tico’s Tacos “sizzlin’ hot” salsa packets from garbage dumps. I… Continue Reading