He hates guns, so I buy a gun. I hate guns, so I buy a gun. Here I am, sauntering up to the glass case of a sporting goods store.
Read MoreMaiden Estep leads the Red Hat into Number Six at Bear Town, where the mine starts. They walk at first, back to the crawl, miles deep inside, under the town of Grundy. Already, they have cut a strip in both directions, and soon they’ll be coming back through the middle, robbing pillars it’s called, the most danger any of them have been exposed to except the old guys, the robbing line and the dynamite guys.
Read MoreCecilia Cherry picked her nose. She picked it until it bled, and then she’d scrape at the scabs until it bled some more.
Read MoreMartin Behaim wakes in the humid belly of his own caravel, naked and bound at the limbs. It’s dark as death and twice as cold.
Read MoreRight here, right now. A gentle surf. The clouds retreating. Careful on the wet rocks. A man with an aluminum walking-stick ponders an emerald tide pool.
Read MoreIn July 1804 David Hosack knelt unsteady in the bottom of a rowboat bound back to Manhattan and soaked the knees of his breeches in Alexander Hamilton’s blood. Hosack straddled Hamilton like a field surgeon, like a lover.
Read MoreOn a night like this, on top of the world (which is for the moment the roof outside your latest lover's window, the one with the teeth) you remember something you were told by someone whose face you can’t remember but whose birthday was the same as yours.
Read MoreJanet 1 and Janet 2 shared all the same words. It sounded ridiculous, Oliver knew, but it was as if one Janet spoke to him in anagrams of arguments he’d had with the other.
Read MoreWhen I tell people I’m from Spencer, Iowa, I don’t expect them to automatically know that my hometown was ranked the 10th Best Place to Live in the United States by Relocate-America.com’s “America's Top 100 Places to Live for 2007.”
Read MoreWhen I came to I was lying flat on my back, the waves licking my naked ankles, my hair a mess of slime and seaweed. Placenta coated my pale blue arms, fingers swollen and nails encased in grime.
Read MoreJuly 31, 2013 | Memphis, TN
Chris,
Yesterday I bought a new pair of shoes like you told me. I bought a six-pack of Bud & a bag of Fritos.
That’s Pringreen. There—that mantis of a man propped on the corner with his hand in his pocket, fondling something. A dent in the top of his stovepipe hat as if someone put it there with a single outraged blow.
Read MoreIn a Soho bistro, a young couple sit in the wan London sun. He is drinking a cappuccino and looking forlorn. She is eating a cheese and tomato sandwich and falling in love with the thinly sliced tomato as it caresses her tongue.
Read MoreDear Mr. Buckneffer,
I am writing to let you know that a petition has been circulated in regards to adding another member to our diverse intellectual team here at Distinct Designs, Inc. I am the one who started this petition.
We found out that our computer ran on magic. Mom and Dad had said it was supposed to be electricity that computers ran on, before we’d bought it and brought it home. But that day the computer started running before we could plug it in.
Read MoreI met Peter online. I mean, he sent me an email, and from that moment I knew I had to help him. It was such a touching story. About how he couldn't trust his family. About the car crash that killed his wife and kids. The esophageal cancer. It wasn't just about the money.
Read MoreThere was a time when everything I owned fit precisely into a Volkswagen Rabbit. It took some thought—laundry bags instead of baskets, one good purse, versatile shoes. And closing the hatchback required a few attempts with some rearranging in between.
Read MoreThose in the cathedral district knew Azul DePerila as the transient who called himself a bishop, a man who wandered the neighborhood at all hours. On Wednesday night of Holy Week, he was outside Christ the King as the moon shone between twin spires, covering the memorial garden in a band of light.
Read MoreWhen Teenie lumbered into view with the baby carrier on her chest, I had to stop myself from bawling. I didn’t really believe there was a baby in there—we had only started “trying” last month—but the sight of that half-price Butterball turkey bulging from the sling was almost enough to get me going. These days, it didn’t take much.
Read MoreOf course every time I attempt to explain the nature of my house arrest to myself, I inevitably allow for great expanses of opinion, mostly my opinion, which should not be regarded as in any way legal—despite my superior mental firepower I am no expert of the laws prohibiting the Alleged Transgression. Which is in large part why I am here. This room is nice on most days.
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