The news said the temperature would be zero or below. I said how can it be zero, how can a temperature be nothing? But it isn’t nothing, it’s zero, it’s a value, my brother told me. He was also living with my mom at the time.… Continue Reading
By this point in time his tennis game had degenerated into little more than an ill-conceived, albeit skillful, vendetta, the intent of which was to extinguish as many members of the human race as possible.… Continue Reading
It’s not worth knowing what’s inside the wall. It’s just a vaguely human shape painted on the wall of one of the bedrooms, that knocks at specific intervals. But the thing’s brick and I’m not made of money, especially not after buying a home.… Continue Reading
Nicolas digs to the root of most rotten things fast and ruthless. Pit bulls are an affectionate breed. None of my pits attacked anybody before. Yesterday was a calamitous accident.… Continue Reading
i always remember the dead as gray, & always startled when they look alive.… Continue Reading
When I roll in to drive, Dad Bluetooth’s AC/DC or Metallica—some 90s stuff— on the soundsystem, crazy loud. We have to shout over it while he tells me how to switch gears; I pretend like I don’t know how while he pretends not to notice me pretending. … Continue Reading
She took another long stressful sip from her drink and clanked the glass on the table. It could be seconds before her wrath exploded according to her husband’s prediction. But she didn’t stay. Instead, she fled to the attic and to the only world that made sense to her.… Continue Reading
He wakes up with dread in his belly. He can’t afford to get the tap fixed and he sure can’t afford to replace a broken door. He should call the cops, but doesn’t. He should put some shorts on, but doesn’t. Instead he pads to the kitchen and pulls the door open. “Do you know what time it is?”… Continue Reading
It seemed to me that there was an imprint of a lost me on the inside of a certain, special mask. A me that wasn’t lost and afraid. Could I find the right mask? Maybe it didn’t exist, and maybe there was no me to find at all.… Continue Reading
The trauma of war can ripple across generations and bleed through borders. You can arrive in the United States or come back home to the United States, but you’ve left a piece of your sanity behind.… Continue Reading