“You said the rain would stop,” she said. “Is that a driveway or just another turn?” he asked. “You said it would stop,” she said. He moved onto the shoulder slowly. He looked at her. “I did but it hasn’t has it.” She watched out the window. He pulled onto the road. “She said it […]
Scene 1 They ran franticly, with hair like raving monkeys, down the hill. “Did you get a shot?” she said, breathless. “Got it,” he said, his hands shaking. “I so freakin got it.” She ripped the car onto the road. He kept looking back up the hill. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “But why […]
I could tell a story about the end of the world. When Ed came into the store with a sneezing pig and a chicken with a blue sock on its head. “You can’t bring those in here,” I told him. “Jesus, Ed.” “You haven’t been outside,” Ed said. “The sun’s melting everyone’s shoes.”
The computer said, “Your password expires in 5 days.” The programmer said, turning to a colleague, “This is odd. Is it the password’s fault? Is it really a question of the password dying?” They had coffee later, which was typical. The programmer said, “We need to tell the user something. Like ‘Sorry to interrupt but […]
He gave permission for Harry to slip into the storage room and lift a bottle of whiskey, one of the finer brands not intended for drinking, “least not by my crowd,” he said. Harry snuck up to his room and hid the bottle under his bed then slept through the night. His mother asked him […]
He called a week before Christmas break to tell me the name of a cat, a new wife, and to ask whether I remembered him, and I said I did. “I remember when we flew those paper airplanes at school. Fourth grade, fifth? But I don’t remember anything after that.” “That’s because I moved away, […]
The Marigolds had to be raised like any animal on the planet born without the ability to walk, build, and feed themselves. We watched them in our dullness surmount the edges like wild moulds, fold over the rim, and crash the suburbs like geese. They had us over for dinner once and the kids played […]
His Parts can be found at 365 Tomorrows.
One day he tired of food, desisted eating. He sipped dew. He grew dim. Soon, his mate puffed him into a breeze. She said, “Yellow Augusts. Maybe that’s one promise you can keep.”
We took our dog to that always empty place outside of town and unclipped his leash. Our father said, “Go on.” At an old, broken fence (we never understood what the fence had ever enclosed–“Pasture, maybe, or some settler’s yard,” our mother guessed), our dog stopped and looked back at us with an expression too […]
Marisela had bird bones. She had a dream about rising above what trees there were, rising still, and breaking through a thin rind in the clouds. She woke up weeping. Her father ran out of the house and pointed to the roof. “Maricela, you’ll fall.” “It’s the light above the clouds that woke me up,” […]
A woman sits alone in the old library. This old library creaks and when the wind blows readers swear the walls respond with sway, what readers there are. Few readers attend the library so it also echoes. The door closes behind the woman. Her movements step down the main hall which grows small the longer […]
One day, Juan’s car ignored the key and the ignition. Inside the compartment, Juan examined nothing he recognized aside from the battery and a reservoir filled with blue liquid. He chewed at the inside of his cheek then closed the hood. The children were playing in the yard. The youngest, Juan’s girl, kicked a ball […]
“Oh, you’re from Montana,” he said. “Arkansas. My mistake . . . “Yes, from Texas . . . “Hot yes, but the space here is more than what you need. Of course, we should always take advantage . . . “No, I never saw one but you could hear them at night in the desert; […]
Heading out of town they saw zombies dancing about the foot of a barn aflame. They saw at sun up a truck with a shark in the bed being parked at the lab. That was when the traffic got thick and they could see much nearer and in greater detail and suddenly they sensed that […]
