This time, when Sheila breaks up with Rick, she uses fishing line, two bent nails, and her ex-boyfriend’s hammer. She strings the tripwire taut, eight inches high, across the doorframe of his side entrance, guesstimating the placement of the posterboard… Continue Reading
I’d forgotten how much I hated small talk until we hit the interstate. Three hours into the trip I pull into a truck stop to buy Meredith a Milky Way and some headphones. My hope was that the caramel might… Continue Reading
Sunday, 9/9 The date had been circled on my calendar for months. The night before my flight from Nashville to NYC I used a red ballpoint to circle the word Tuesday and the number eleven. And then again and again… Continue Reading
Their uneven line inches forward, seventeen concerned volunteers trespassing lawfully in dew-stained sneakers. The morning is bright, unseasonably warm, but she can still see her breath. Maggie walks and watches, barely aware of the faraway scent of burning cedar nearby… Continue Reading
“Where am I?” “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” the bald man says. His nametag reads: Pete. “No one ever does.” “Okay, so how did I get here?” “Simple enough. Tell me about your day.” Funny, it doesn’t… Continue Reading
“I’m thinking of getting a reduction,” Teresa said. “Not you too…” Chuckie rolled his eyes, but it looked like yet another anxious blink. “Let me guess, your beak?” “No, my breasts. I mean… I come from a naturally voluptuous flock.… Continue Reading
Harold sits, thinking. Not his best skill but something he does more and more often these days. Which, given his current situation, does provide some modicum of hope. He used to have it all. Only he didn’t know it at… Continue Reading
I was born and raised in the forest, among my kind. We lived off the land, the nearby waterways, unmolested and unencumbered, free to enjoy the sun, the stars, and especially the occasional breeze. Now my ankle hurts. I only… Continue Reading
Mom was way into Santa. But I always found the red suit, flushed pigmentation, and overall jolliness a bit creepy. Not to mention the standing invitation for strangers to sit on his lap. When I argued that he couldn’t possibly… Continue Reading