He drooped in the heat like a child’s discarded ice pop. Leaning against the metal railing of an outer downtown bus stop, he blocked a fading advertis...
I went to the man’s house to see for myself. Plenty of others did too. There were people from the news there but mostly pick-up trucks I recognized from living ...
If you want to get depressed, I recommend the Big City bus depot.
There is nowhere better to witness first-hand the ill-effects of broken dreams.
Exhibit ...
Venus loomed overhead, a seething red eye, on the night my father placed the call. Ceremoniously, he dialed the eleven toll-free digits, snickering to himself. ...
Neighbor came over in the morning while the sky was still pink and asked Lily Mae about borrowing some salt. Neighbors got just a few teeth left and the ones he...
Even though we expected it, we were not prepared for the Wisconsin Dells to be completely abandoned on that brisk, sub-zero afternoon in January. As we drove in...
“What?
He says this as his finger slides down your calf, drops of water from the bath dotting your leg, he eases past the straggly gray hairs, the coffee-color...
I watched my brother and his friends from my lawn chair under the plum tree. They was fiddlin with their stock car in the garage. When they did this, I was spos...
Steve had a dream that night about a man with incorrect anatomy — or it might have been that the man was drawn with incorrect perspective in his mind’s eye. It...
After your funeral, Liz gave the house to Jerry and moved to the suburbs and we figured that was the last we’d hear of her, at least, until Jerry ran himself in...
GOVERNOR: Potholes have ruined the roads in and out of MY province. Merchant caravans have ceased passing THROUGH! Preventing us from sending potatoes to the en...
The animal next door was whining and sounded as though it had no intention to stop. I wanted to write the neighbors a strongly-worded note, but confrontation ma...
Fifteen years ago this week, Carter Siap and his roommate, the man now known worldwide simply as “Rob,” began programming what would become Social. Fueled by Mo...
Rich wraps the rest of his Italian sausage in its greasy wax paper and puts it in my purse while we wait in line for the Ferris wheel.
I point at the sign. T...
I'd just selected a jumbo map of the world, and he was escorting the two conical flasks in which I would see peppermint plants grow over the coming days and wee...
My friend Jerry Bunson told me that the American History Museum is nothing more than a glorified antique store—made up of household items and old-fashioned prod...
You stumble on the ad in-between case files; a day’s work consisting of ten to twenty breaks for casual internet browsing depending on the weather. If it’s nice...
I watch reruns of “The Bionic Woman” while Mack attends class, slip into lectures about Venn diagrams, Beyoncé, and monetary policy when I get tired of her supe...
In the early 1800s, a boy named Leo is selected to be the next Pope after he writes an obscene sentence on a classroom chalkboard in a dusty English board...
Abstract ideas are not easily recognized by voice recognition capabilities. May not be recognized Exline no I mean really next line. Next line next line process...
She has a pack of raspberry pop tarts and apple juice box for breakfast.
Last night was a bitch. (One client, no tip.) Even worse, she’s on a double shift. H...
As she walked home from dropping the kids off at school, she imagined checking her email to find something. What would it say? Accepted? Good news? Your submiss...
Moises hadn’t seen another dinosaur in years. He remembered that allosaurs bully from middle school. There was the stegosaurus at that NOFX show back in ‘96. Th...
His eyes locked on the wings of two flies on top of each other outside the class window. Their shaky dance is more intriguing than the text being read. A visibl...
Wallow on, dudes!
So you’re depressed. Your life is a failure. Every dream and aspiration you’ve ever had is gone and out of reach. Even your back-up...
“Be back in a sec,” Cathy says. She carries a black, knee-length sheath dress, priced at $14.99, into the dressing room. There is no attendant, but at TJ Maxx, ...
ARIES (March 21st- April 20th)
This week, you will encounter a beautiful forest upon the valley and find an ancient shrine in a cave. Mesmerized, you will ca...