My wife has COVID-19. She was an essential healthcare worker. Now, she is quarantined. The boys want to see her. “I’m sorry, boys. Mommy might cough on you.” Netflix doesn’t keep the boys from reenacting the Thunderdome for long. Wash hands. Pray to Buddha that […]
The trip had been the woman’s idea. To be honest, you weren’t her first choice. But she had booked the trip on a whim and didn’t want to go alone. She did not expect you to come, just as you had not expected her to […]
“I feel like I’m in a cuckoo’s nest with a bunch of old farts!” I shouted. I was hoping someone could hear me. Everyone was talking over one another, or to themselves. I could hardly hear myself think. I usually preferred spending time with old […]
When it is raining, this boy feels alone and connected. A paradox of tone. The world a ripened fruit, not to savor, but to dig his fingers inside. To mash. This boy, sometimes, stands in the shower and pretends it’s raining. Pretends his body is […]
I fired my weapon today. I never have before. We’ve done drills, so I was prepared. My body knew what to do. He marched, arm straight out, toward the guidance counselor (the one who wears earrings that look like little spirals, like she’s hypnotizing you). […]
The sun traverses across the sky and shadows move along the floor, but you are still here in the infusion chair, connected to the drip by a sharp butterfly needle and an umbilical cord of plastic tubing. The drip is so slow because the last […]
Jody stood in the dark with his head leaning against the window. The glass pulsed with the rain tapping against it. The pane was cold, almost cold enough to chase away the headache. It left his temple but stopped just behind his eyes, where nothing […]
I had left the key in the same spot until just now. You had to drag the little tiki guy from the garden and use it as a stepstool. Looks like Sean Penn was your first impression. I told you that you got it all […]
Sister Nancy calls me Larry David. True. I strive to violate arbitrary norms, like Curb Your Enthusiasm. Nancy often asks how I am, expecting a simple, I’m good. I’m shitty. How does one expect me to hide my feelings? Especially Nancy, who once said the […]
The moon barks its commands through its pale light, his body animating out of slumber and into full stalking mode. He sits up, slowly turns his head to the left, to the right, like the Terminator. Like all great things predatorial. He’s doing it again. […]
For one blissful second, as Eddie’s soles lost contact with the glassy ice of the pond, he believed that dying might be like this. But as his head smacked the ice and his sister’s sobs overcame the dull reverberation of impact in his skull, he […]
Jeremy left the plasma center with his arm wrapped and forty bucks on his debit card. On the walk to the library, he stopped and bought some malt liquor and a pack of smokes. He sat on the steps and drank, his thoughts on his […]
