Dad snorted the last rail off Granny’s copy of Better Homes and Gardens and asked, “Ever fuck a Catholic chick?”… more
Dad snorted the last rail off Granny’s copy of Better Homes and Gardens and asked, “Ever fuck a Catholic chick?”… more
Just before noon, bright October, the four walked into the narrow kitchen and stopped short to see Mom in bathrobe, hair messed, butt against stove, fridge open, its light on her face. Entirely wrapped in the super muscular arms of a man. Not their father.… more
This is what it does. It lands you in a new home fitted with bunk beds and barred windows and filled with stinky friends and a daily drip, so to speak, of enough chemicals to make it impossible for me to fly to those manic and dangerous heights ever again, to make it so I can never be shirtless of my own accord, to ensure that any exercise I do will be in the exercise room during exercise class. The duck never does yoga; yoga does the duck.… more
I momentarily lost my hearing due to a long exhausted yawn and missed the blast of the gunshot next door.… more
I was hiding out with Joe Dooley at his godforsaken apartment because a man, a big, big man, this Blanchard man whom I feared immensely, had a bounty out for my head.… more
“Lloyd,” he says, “how can you hit on girls half your age at this watered-down version of a strip club, then quit your job on principle?” I hear his words, but they don’t register. I’m already dreaming about my lunar landing, looking for a place to plant my flag. “I don’t know, it’s my happy place, know what I mean? You just can’t piss on another man’s happy place.”… more
If we had come here a couple of centuries ago, I’d have hunted bear, chased down wolves, and maybe fought an Indian or two. But lacking the athletic challenges with which Daniel Boone was blessed, I’ve been forced to embrace the frontiersman in me by playing pickleball.… more
Now in the poolhouse, with total access to the woman he craved, John pulled away, gulped back two, three mouthfuls, who was counting. “I love you, I don’t know, that’s not the point. It’s just—I’m not Des. You can’t slap a tattoo, a beard on me and, boom, I’m your husband.”… more
Another lumber-hucking workday in the yard had put a lil’ more wear on these soles. It barely covered the bills, but I had a spot in a cramped, too-many-dudes’ apartment, right on the sand; dude’s trying to become men, or men trying to remain young dudes.… more