The boy sneaks past the bathroom, opens the door to his sister’s room, and slips his thin frame through. From her closet he retrieves a dress, a flowery, colorful affair. He leaves, closes the door silently, tiptoes back into his… Continue Reading
The date is going well, he thinks. She keeps giggling at the things he says. Like when he asks how come she ordered the ham omelet, if she’s such a big animal rights person. This is how they met yesterday:… Continue Reading
Sometimes in the winter, I come here when the tide is just turning to start its inexorable march to the ice-lined shore, and the sand crunches underfoot and the wind stings my face, and I watch as the water glides… Continue Reading
Doug was in the living room with his mum. “Did you come in your truck?” she asked. Doug nodded. “Wasn’t that truck a gift from a friend?” “Hugh,” said Doug. “He left it to me, eight years ago, when he… Continue Reading
Terrified, Bodie summons me to his cavernous office. “They want me out,” he says, scrutinizing all those dazzling backstabbers and hangers-on through thick glass panes. “Calm down,” I say. “Calm down? Are you shitting me? You hear what I’m saying?”… Continue Reading
It’s a clean, warm morning in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The air is cool and fragrant, smelling of flowers and bread baking. After the clouds float off, the day will grow hot. But a breeze blows gently through the palms that wave… Continue Reading
He was young once, I remind myself, searching for an outline of youth beneath the sagging maroon paunches underneath his eyes. He reaches for my hand, and I make an effort to imagine away the wrinkles and tan-colored liver spots… Continue Reading
Just this? Just gathering up your things and moving out? Is it really as simple as 1) longitude and latitude and 2) your possessions, your stuff, your paraphernalia, your crap, your endless boxes of things? And what kind of generosity… Continue Reading
By mid-afternoon there is nothing left of the garage but charred wood and heat-warped tin. Three firefighters, her mother and four neighbors speak of how lucky no one is hurt and that the fire hadn’t spread and that someone spotted… Continue Reading
Tyler turned six shortly before his mother read an article about the benefits of camping. She pressured her husband to borrow $300 from his parents to buy a faded 1968 PleasureMate 12-foot popup camper from a classified ad. The camper’s… Continue Reading