Scanning my panicked eyes around the area, I finally spot them—two shadows taking complementing footsteps underneath the moonlight. They’re walking along the street and away from the restaurant, away from me. Her fingers cling at his bicep and he stares down at her like she’d vanish if he dared to blink. Every single muscle in my body—including my heart—turns to stone.… Continue Reading
Daniel Martin returns to his alma mater, a husk of his past glories, tattered with felt letters and medals. His body shrinks itself as each blank face asks to see the state rings choking his fingers into swollen stubs. … Continue Reading
A part of him was happy to see her. She was hard-wired to scrub. The much bigger part of him was wondering how in the hell she found him.… Continue Reading
If I remember correctly (and who can remember anything anymore) I smoked my first cigarette on the lawn of a church down the street from the school gym, after escaping the insufferable first dance of 9th grade, when I decided that school dances were lame and I’d rather be doing cool shit.… Continue Reading
Once, after I shot up in a pizzeria’s bathroom and the owner glared at me as I walked past him, I went outside, lit a cigarette, took a drag. I had nowhere to go, nothing to do—except to find ways to get more dope.… Continue Reading
Luis watches as a Mexican rides up on an agitated horse. He reins his horse in at the edge of the hole and next to the dead sea lion. The frightened horse kicks and bucks a foot away from the grave’s edge. Luis thinks: The horse can smell death in the air.… Continue Reading
I take the handle of the vice and turn it clockwise. It’s so close to my eyes it’s out of focus. The screw turns a little and the sliding jaw presses against the left side of my head. I breathe out as much as I can in one go. I hold the nothing as long as I can before I breathe in again. It’s part of the ceremony.… Continue Reading
Dani says she’s not worried. One day she’ll go somewhere warmer. California, maybe. One day she’ll just be gone. “Just like that?” you ask. “Just like that,” she says. “People like us vanish all the time.”… Continue Reading
The downtown lights blazed in the evening air. Slouched behind the wheel, Ismael watched as Loretta’s staff—the few whose physical presence was deemed “essential”—broke at the lobby door and hunched to their cars. Loretta, gone for 15 cold days.… Continue Reading
I told the priest about the tent sleepover in the backyard, about the bag of Funyuns and the Cherry Cokes and my suggestion that we zip our sleeping bags together to keep ourselves warmer and how his Funyuns breath made me giggle and how that caused my hand to brush closer to him than I otherwise might have.… Continue Reading