I lifted a quick prayer for that fisherman, even as I watched him throw his back into reversing his course. What chance does a little guy have in this world, you know?… Continue Reading
Edward cannot find rest without Nya X since his mother died and he watches her on YouTube precisely because he is not turned on when she dresses like a Russian nurse.… Continue Reading
Rain, snow, sleet, or hail—every day, at precisely 7:30 a.m. Michael takes Goldie, his golden retriever-german shepherd mix, for a walk. Every day at 8:55 a.m. he arrives at work, where, for the last 40 years, he’s sold minivans to families with sticky-fingered toddlers and sport cars to retired men with bald spots and dropping testosterone levels Every day since his wife died, for dinner Michael microwaves a frozen dinner. Every day, by 9:30 p.m. he’s drifted off to sleep, Every day until today. Today, he is jobless.… Continue Reading
Lately my life had become a single note; one key out of eighty-eight. Dull and rote. I had become something I never believed possible: mundane. At times, spiritually inert. I got the strange feeling Waldo knew this, could sense this within me. I was embarrassed. Appearing weak was worse than being weak.… Continue Reading
Harold Simpson, the English department chair, told me I had a low IQ. To Mr. Simpson, I was somewhere between mentally defective and virtuoso—more likely to work in an ad agency than write poetry or a Harvard thesis about the existential angst of Jean-Paul Sartre and his friends. I would never, in his mind, be… Continue Reading
Darrell stared at the room placard just below the peephole until his sight went out of focus. He made the numbers 404 transform, they shuffled and stretched, elastic, until they spelled out their true meaning as Darrell saw them. A warning: Death O’Death.… Continue Reading
He’d felt chewed up and spit out a thousand times but this time the hangover was nowhere to be found. He felt rested. He was ready to take on the world all over again and give just as much as he got. A drink was exactly what he needed.… Continue Reading
You made life more exciting with that hot dog story. The ball landing in the mustard! The foursome laughing, rolling on the tee box, heads exploding. How do you hit a fucking ball backwards! Oh, man, they’re dying! You brought joy into the world, I’m telling you.… Continue Reading
She set the cake on the ground and my friend’s three German Shepherds rushed towards it in a blur. I did what I could to keep the beasts away, but I eventually gave up.
My friends and I looked on as the dogs ate my cake.… Continue Reading
The leaves had only just begun turning red when my father slapped me behind the head in the parking lot outside my high school. I was 16 at that point and had already gotten used to life slapping me behind the head.… Continue Reading