Scott, held the brick—room 204, and now the envelope. He slunked past the rancid stinking cafeteria, and past the mosaic of tiles made by the sixth graders, his tile—black with a single white dot in the center. His eyes smiled when they landed on his dot—his father, sinking in a murky sea.… Continue Reading
Let me pretend that my dad didn’t storm our house, kick our front door until it caved in, nor did he stab it with a steak knife. That as I peered outside, barefoot and confused, the police officer hadn’t noticed me. Pretend I didn’t see my mom holding her head in her hands and rocking back and forth, and that I never heard her say, he’s going to kill us, he’s going to kill us.… Continue Reading
They’re loyal to you. They’re lonely men whose entire life revolves around a 20 by 10 screen. I know you can’t imagine what that’s like, neither can I, but can we both rationally consider the aftermath? You… go away, their screen goes empty, and there’s nothing. They’re cold and empty husks. What do you think happens when people don’t have anything left to live for? They kill other people, or themselves.… Continue Reading
The world didn’t end in 2012, but reason surely left his body when he fell for that girl. Shrikanth once asked Dharmesh how he met his girlfriend. Motherfucker went on and on till the cock roosted at dawn. Binod’s has stopped roosting since 2012.… Continue Reading
He wasn’t scared, or upset, or panicking. He was a man, he was angry. Full of rage. These were rageful tears.… Continue Reading
The day after you died our son watched Star Trek. I thought it was odd because he never had before. The episode was about an invisible spaceship entity that wanted to die. The crew of the Enterprise had to give up trying to save it.… Continue Reading
Because of the tumor we had to leave our sister Angela behind on our trip to Disney last summer. It was sad because it was on her birthday too, but by then she was too sick to even get out of bed, and plus the charity gave us all free tickets and they had an expiration date.… Continue Reading
So Glen found himself, once again, at the cusp of non-belonging. Staring at the insignificance that had been his home since grade school, a dark, smothering smallness he’d finally overcome by getting into Barber & Matheson as a technical writer seven years ago.… Continue Reading
Here is the wish I’m ashamed of—that you were the type of grandparent who had a fun nickname like Papa or Gramps, who came to my dance recitals, who called me on my birthday. Who would have intervened, gotten to know me, before it was too late and dementia stole all but your oldest memories. Leaving me with the responsibility to build this relationship that had never fully bloomed. … Continue Reading
During court proceedings, the advocate she’d been assigned kept telling her that everything Ronnie did was his fault. Only his. She re-played that message in her mind until she believed it. Or mostly believed it. But people judge. You can see it in their eyes, a calculation of how much trouble knowing you is worth.… Continue Reading