“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
The dark figure strode purposefully toward the softly glowing front gate of the Afterlife. Its eyes were black holes that could tug your soul away from you. Its face was hewn from the same black granite as the sarcophagi of… Continue Reading
Paul hadn’t expected the end to feel like this; the absence of pain was unexpected. More than anything, a hollowing out. The edges of things had dulled, the distance gained softened, the body delicately seeping back from its source. Still… Continue Reading
Planning his next escape from Springbrook Retirement Home, George wakes early, just as the first-shift staff start their rounds, so it isn’t surprising he is the only resident to observe Fred leave, zipped into a body bag, covered with a… Continue Reading
What happens. I drive to the store. Read in a coffeeshop. Pretend to work. The drama having subsided, the sad affair, the hero dies, a little heroically, the other left alone. How to end it. Had a small success. Child… Continue Reading
After the funeral, everyone left in pairs or groups, shoes crunching over the gravel drive, voices low and careful, as if they were afraid of waking something. I stood on the porch and watched them go, accepting hugs I didn’t… Continue Reading
It was meant to be an April Fool’s Day prank: put a goose in Carl’s old work truck and watch him deal with the problem. We figured Carl would enter his truck, get bit by an angry goose, and come… Continue Reading
The first time I felt Amy standing behind me after she died, I was making her signature hot chocolate — the kind that requires three separate acts of faith: dark chocolate melted slow as sunrise, milk chocolate stirred until it… Continue Reading
I’m alone now. Heavy rain hits the windshield. It rains like this more and more. It didn’t use to. He was my only friend. It was late when I picked him up and he’d been drinking and wanted to sleep… Continue Reading
It was a good year for flowers. My parents’ flower farm was small petunias compared to the big players in the game, but it provided a decent living for them and me and my brothers. We didn’t have the massive… Continue Reading