Bernice noticed the tumor before Stan did. “What is this squish?” “Don’t worry, I’ll never have tits compared to yours.” “It’s not your tits.” The tumor spread up Stan’s chest and wrapped around his esophagus. Four times he checked into the hospital for what he called platinum milkshakes, which brought on vomiting, dry retching, then … Continue reading Ashes
“WISTERIA FALLS HIDEAWAY INN – let’s make your vacation a big win.” Marigold McTaft answered the phone behind the front desk moving from side to side in her swivel high chair grinning at Furman Chase, a long-time friend. It was a Friday night in June at the ten-room motel nestled in the mountains between the … Continue reading The Wisteria Falls Hideaway Inn
AN AUTOMAT AT NOON. A comely redhead in a cornflower blue dress sits by the window, showing too much cleavage for 1958. A man on his lunchbreak at the next table, eying her hungrily as if she's the meatloaf special. A room with no other occupants. This painting must be worth eighty million, Howard says … Continue reading Art History
IT WAS JUST OCCURRING to me that Dirk and Charlotte thought I was from Thailand, or maybe even that Thailand and Vietnam are the same country, and that was why they’d taken me out for Thai noodles, when the big, racist waiter arrived. To be clear, I am not like the waiter. I am … Continue reading I Am Godfather
SO I STARTED BRINGING MY OWN, in my own damn aluminum bucket like the ones the steak house used to have, when they served peanuts, but not the same kind of bucket exactly, since mine was to tote beer around in and had the “Miller High Life” logo painted on the side, but the logo … Continue reading They Stopped Serving Peanuts At The Steak House
THE PIGS WERE LINED UP on the platform of a little wood-framed stage, each one inside their own tiny pen made of clapboard and metal, some pressing snouts between the short, thin bars that were soon to be raised, jerking necks and stretching wide eyes colored jet black in the fluorescent-lit night, while others raced … Continue reading Night in the Ruts
“PACK THE VAN, Marty,” Jack said. “Now?” “Now. Make sure you have everything. Video and stills for all three of us.” “OK. For what?” “The last bullfight,” he said. “Mexicans are outlawing bullfighting at the end of April. We have nine days to make the last one in Huamantla. La Taurina.” “Why?” “To make a … Continue reading The Last Bullfight
IT MIGHT HAVE STARTED with our father gifting my sister and me Swiss Army knives for our birthdays. Or maybe it was the broccoli and cauliflower drowned in melted Cheese Whiz he forced us to eat. My twin sister, in our private language, shared her revenge fantasies for that particular parenting faux pas. I won’t … Continue reading Cryptophasia
THE SCIENCE FICTION WRITER waited outside the hotel, a revolver hanging heavy in the inner pocket of his overcoat. He’d only fired it twice, but at close range he didn’t imagine he’d have any difficulties. His hand was steady as he brought a cigarette to his mouth and puffed; in any case, it was all … Continue reading Zero/One
ALL THAT WINTER, they watched it. Someone had cleared a rectangle of snow from the frozen pond, or lake, whichever it was, that lay at the northernmost side of their neighborhood in Ypsilanti where the streets began to yield to farms, and at one end of the ice they placed a hockey net. But it … Continue reading The Difference Between a Lake and a Pond