Peter first met (well, you know. "Met.") Leona when he was five years old. It would be thirty years before he would spend every... more

Antarctica wants you dead.

The research scientists bundle you up in outside-resistant clothing and put you outside the insulated... more

She had different stories for different people.

“Lost it in a hunting accident.”

“Shot off... more

“I don’t understand anything about the ballet; all I... more

Betty crossed her yard and our street and my yard holding a bundle of mail.

The Light Bulb

Man did not get the idea for the light bulb from those cartoons when someone gets an... more

It’s called The Panda Barn, where you can go and it’ll just be rows and rows of beds

I snapped back into it at the bar. I’d been there the whole time, of course, but I hadn’t really acknowledged it, and I... more

The Day Shirley Temple Died

I remembered I was a bad mother. I called up my son, a bellboy in a fancy Las Vegas hotel, I wanted to... more

 We believed something together, and when we believed it, it was true. Nothing else more true.

I sat in my chair and stared at her. 

It was obvious to me that you needed to talk, and I was there to listen and record.

1.

In the middle of our city are the woods, which are full of animals.

Kara asks: “How much further, Marcus? Do you... more

Ask for a skateboard for Christmas. Pick it part-by-part from the skateshop near Needle Park.

After, go to the Combat Zone to... more

Architecturally, it is almost an exact replica of the Indonesian-style villa he had... more

The posse gutted your daddy’s cattle and made your little sister gasp until she made no sounds at all.  They lit... more

You Think You Can Stop Me??

You can’t stop me. 

So they don’t let me bring my cooler no more, big deal.  I’ll go... more

I'm giving up cold turkey for lent.

* *... more

Two outs to go in the season, eight-nothing Huskies, it’s been a swinging party and nobody invited the Mats.... more

François was working on a baseball campaign, the design and effects for it, two thirty second spots and a sixty, and fifteens cut... more

Three people had died on the rollercoaster, each decapitated by a wooden plank. He told her this as the lap bar lowered over them and... more

A trashbag-blue tattoo of a spider stained her left big toe. D-O-O-M read the tops of her other four toes. She had a taste for chicken... more

Recently I came across a paper I wrote in college at the prestigious University of Florida in 1999 about vengeful ghosts.

They all felt it when the house moved, but only Mae made a sound, something small and guttural, something involuntary and low.

The air in the bedroom sags with mist that won’t touch anything. It hangs around the built-in bed, and stationary lamp, and my sisters and Ma. I can’t be in there. The noises are terrible, and the haze smells like evergreens. It makes me homesick.