Point was a point. He had no mass, thickness, or real measurement. He was, as the definition goes, a position in space and time. In the parlance of the day, Point or Max could be identified as existing at the intersection of two or more lines, vectors, or intentions, such as two people–one named Jane, […]
The step mother, known as the evil step mother, raised a piña colada into the brown tavern smoke. “Three cheers for the Champion and my treacherous step daughter,” she cried. Late evening sun crashed the windows white. But the frames were dark, like old burns in the surface of the wall, bruisings at the periphery […]
In their living room a row of tubes emerges from a space near the French doors. The tubes curve up like strange wine glasses or the necks of luminous ostriches, filled to the rim with water. Often a whale rises slowly and surfaces and squeaks or chirps at a person nearby in a rocker or […]
Once upon a time, a Champion crossed the desert, forded the river, climbed the mountain, and descended into the valley where a Princess, trapped by her evil step-mother, stood at a high open window. “I’m here to free you from yon tower,” the Champion called up. “You must first fight the Dragon and bring me […]
They said he was a strange volume, scariest in flight. “My god, you’re torturing this boarding ramp,” a large woman in a business suit said. The plane above Chicago struggled to climb. “What if I slip through the seat?” he asked Martha. “Must I always fear losing you, Thin as String?” she asked. “Escalators are […]
“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 […]
