She liked it rough — she liked it with a rasp edging the honey in her voice. She liked to pretend that it made her songs profound, filled them with the angst so missing from her own life. But Mock… Continue Reading
78 days ago. That morning, I had burned my tongue on my coffee which already had too much cream in it. I remember this because the pain was something that I could focus on. Something besides his leaving. Usually, when… Continue Reading
“Checkmate!” Harold said as he knocked his opponent’s bishop out of the way. “Dang it, not again,” Roger muttered. “What do ya say, one more shot at redeeming myself?” Harold glanced at his watch. “I guess I’ve got one more… Continue Reading
It’s the house I was raised in, and nothing has changed. The grass around the flowerbed is cut short and neatly edged like me. My father’s ’67 Camaro is in the driveway, plum-crazy-purple, recently waxed. He leaves the cover off… Continue Reading
“Thanks for taking the job, Jake. Holidays and all. And more rain coming.” Handing him the keys to the empty house in the rear, before walking off. “Gonna be another wet Christmas.” Wet Christmases. He knew all about those. If… Continue Reading
The sink had been drinking again, Momma told me. She threw the empty bottle into the garbage and it clinked against the other bottles. That was always when Pa got mad, storming around the house, yelling and smashing things. Black… Continue Reading
His parents named him David, but his friends on the streets of Key West called him Dougie. He was fifty-five years old but if you didn’t know that you might guess his age at seventy. He was a familiar sight… Continue Reading
One bright morning Charles the lion tamer woke up inside the lion’s cage, which, all things considered, was not terribly unusual for him after a night of drinking with his fellow circus folk. But what was unusual, Charles noticed through… Continue Reading