Brooklyn, 2002. The air smelled like radiator steam and pan-fried American failure. The July sun bleached every brick of Crown Heights into the color of singed flesh, and the sidewalks pulsated and vibrated, as if some bastard angel beneath the… Continue Reading
“Well… shit. I died,” I remember thinking. I totally wasn’t expecting it. Hit by a car. I also didn’t expect what came after. The answer to life’s ultimate mystery, except I still have some questions. First, I was shocked that… Continue Reading
Murph said it without thinking. “I don’t miss him.” The oven clicked. The coil glowed red. Heat filled the room, and she stood still in the center of the kitchen, a cold casserole dish in one hand and a dishrag… Continue Reading
Monday “Maud, he’s at it again. The new neighbour. He’s doing it doggy style in the garden.” “What!?” “Doggy Style. Just like yesterday.” “Downward dog, Idris. It’s called downward dog.” “Well, whatever it is, it’s obscene, shaking his arse around… Continue Reading
Aunt Maisy used to give Luna and I lemon-flavored cough drops and tell us they were real candy, and the summer I was four and Luna was six we took the bag of cough drops off Maisy’s shelf and ate… Continue Reading
The sparrow in the filing cabinet had been dead three days, maybe four. Marianne could tell by the way its feet had curled, the dim gloss still caught in its eye. She set down her cleaning kit and crouched, her… Continue Reading
Mira took her medicine in the dark. The jar was smooth and cold, the label hand-written in faint ink: B17 — Immuno-Restorative. Below that, smaller: Apricot kernel extract. Natural therapy. Unregistered. The lid creaked open. One seed in the morning.… Continue Reading
You might think it’s weird to give your violin a name, but not me. I mean, when you get right down to it, how is it any different than naming a doll or a stuffed animal? The important thing is… Continue Reading
Dr. Carlos de Oliveira had long abandoned the dream of returning to Earth. His life belonged to Callisto now—a drifting station above endless ice, where Jupiter’s magnetic storms set the sky ablaze with curtains of green and violet light. The… Continue Reading
My son, Tommy, chomped down the toffee apple with the unthinking greed of a child who’d never learnt control. His cheeks puffed out sticky with sugar and caramel, the glaze catching the carnival lights like a fragile shell. Lopsided on… Continue Reading