“What am I supposed to do with a rabbit?” she said, handing her friend a coffee. “You could always boil it up,” her friend said, more than a little high-pitched. “I hear it’s very good all peppered up.” “You could eat this rabbit?” She turned to the friend, who sipped and winked. The friend said, […]
She said, “Meet me at nine under the bridge’s middle lamp. I have something special. Don’t be late.” He thought nothing of the request at first. Another romp in the night, blinking at the ceiling, maybe a bottle of wine shared on her balcony downtown, and sparrows balanced on the rain gutter. The cab turned […]
One day a man woke up to leaves heavy with water outside his window. Yesterday, the sun spotted the green ground and he laughed at the wrens in the bushes. But today, the water made the leaves heavy and the higher branches muttered at the sun. Yesterday, encouragement, mulching, work, love, and walks to the […]
Tinkerton lowered his face and flicked a malfunctioning lighter and blew the right eye into the back of his skull. or Tinkerton tossed a piece of broken glass and sliced with a lucky toss through the neck of a streetwalking pigeon. “I hadn’t meant that,” he said. “I hadn’t meant that.” or Was it “wept” […]
Computer Leon buried sensitive data on his machine, critical histories, whole modes of living. So he decided he should back it up. He purchased a fancy, silver terabyte. It came with all the wires. He tapped his fingers on the desk as the lights flashed and the disks spun. They sounded like small aircraft turbines. […]
It was on a cold day when Jules joined the exclusive club of the dying. He bought a box of chocolate ice cream and waited for it to melt into a bowl. Then drank it over the course of thirty minutes. This was something new. Something black and small glowed in the middle of his […]
This morning I can find nothing to write. I look in the coffee jar for a story and find only grounds and memory. On the porch, the wrens are at a nest and so, more than story, I concoct a wooden box and a hanging place under an eave near the open door. The clouds […]
Gordon Freeman kissed his wife on the cheek. She used to wear guns on her hips. They walked the canals. Clean water twisted like silver rope through the rocks. Snakes snapped at black turtles whose clonks echoed down and down and done. In the distance, they heard a horn go up, the sound of gates […]
The saleswoman wore yellow. When she lowered her knees over the pelican, she caught two breaths, then no more. Cars passed. A flat face against glass like the preparation of a pie. She sat in her office waiting for screens to change. She waited for future messages. “Is that a feather in the corner of […]
“If I left you,” he said, “where would I go?” “But you wouldn’t,” she said. “Where would I go?” “You wouldn’t,” she said. “How about a cabin in the Everglades with stacks and stacks of rabbit boxes?” “Alaska sounds nice, but long and dry somehow.” “Or a boathouse on green water and everyday I wake […]
A man invented a method of turning the content of web sites into data-filled jelly. The gelly absorbed new content as it was added via wireless feeds. He also invented a capsule that would transport the data into space where it would emit that content into vacuum in a form of an ever-growing and ever-altering […]
One day Fred went to his car. The key broke in the lock. It was hot. Early morning. He remembered his father telling him that the same thing had once happened to him. But he also remembered that his father broke off on tangents. “Yeah, did I tell you about when the key broke in […]
Six people stood in an open field. They each watched at their feet a dead rat. The first person said that the rat had four feet to walk with, though they perhaps weren’t of much use now. The second person wondered at the whiskers and told a story about his childhood with guitars, kites, and […]
The man woke up in a room with several doors. The room was circular and rose into darkness undiminished or articulated by light. In the room was a square table, which the man thought odd. On the table was a box and inside the box were numerous colored keys. Each key corresponded to one of […]
In a dream, a man lost his son. The son wouldn’t stop committing crimes. He wouldn’t stay in his room, no matter how much the man yelled for this. The son kept steeling the policeman’s handcuff key, pickpocketing wallets. He threatened the world with strange little fists and darted through rooms with a knife. Outside, […]
