I’m half-dressed and half in the bottle when the Federales pound on the door, shouting for my roommate, Angel Rios. You think you know a person, I think to myself, but then I think I don’t really know why they’ve… Continue Reading
My father sets a cardboard box on the floor of the kitchen, and crouches beside it. With his hand on the lid, he lays down the rules. We will raise the contents — emitting muffled peeps — until they are… Continue Reading
One Husky puppy wears a charcoal mask and has a tail like a question mark covered in frost. He patrols the yard’s perimeter barking at passing planes and searching for escape routes under the fence, every bit the wolf I… Continue Reading
Frank, tall and spare, with sparkling black eyes and thick silvery hair is married to short, airy Geraldine who has pale blue eyes and a wild mop of dyed-red hair. Geraldine is already shouting as they enter our apartment block,… Continue Reading
The For Sale sign hangs askew and swings lazily in the early morning breeze that shimmies over the Dolores Mountains and runs down the long valley where the wild horses kick their heels. By the time the wind reaches the… Continue Reading
Summer days dozens of boys jumped off the train bridge. Their skin was pale at the beginning of summer, deep gold by the end. They shouted, laughed, shoving each other, horsing around, hurling insults and challenges. When a train came,… Continue Reading
It wasn’t that she hated the piece. She didn’t. Really. It just didn’t belong in the living room. It clashed with the room’s light and airy design she had so carefully created. Early one Sunday morning, while he was still… Continue Reading
I’m not sure how long Henry has been using my peppermint foot butter as a deodorant. I can’t blame him; the packaging is almost identical to his stick. I mentioned it to him and he shrugged and rubbed it under… Continue Reading
PROLOGUE Dew and shattered bottles sparkle on the morning grass. Dirt scabs the stretch of green in war zones at the bases, homeplate, the pitcher’s mound. A place of heroes and victims. The echoes of past conflict reverberate here. A… Continue Reading
I’m imagining the taste of chocolate. All different kinds. Dark chocolate. Milk chocolate. Mint chocolate. Chocolate-covered cherries. Peanut brittle with a chocolate glaze. I’m angry. Davey doesn’t share his chocolates, only gives me the ones he doesn’t like, only gives… Continue Reading