1880 1 1
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I know it was the ceremonial magician who talked you into it. I know it was supposedly to be what the Enochean Angels needed to come into the vortex and into the world, make it all balanced on all four sides, four elements, so that when the world ended, t
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187910
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As Gino exited the supermarket, plastics bags in tow, he began doing curls with his right arm. He’d been doing this for years, reasoning that he might as well get some exercise during the walk home.
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187983
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I was making good bread as a New York studio musician and jingle writer, anonymous back-room jobs.
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187991
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She was skinny and with breasts like a wound up skein of yarn.
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187920
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Nothing more savory than gossip relayed in confidential tones.
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187976
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The World's Worst Mime stood there next to the iron carousel, portraying something, and the crowd understood none of it, except that whatever thing he was trying to portray was not being portrayed well at all.
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187964
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Some people might find it strange and a bit obsessive to mow their lawn every day, but to Shiram it was an irreplaceable part of his daily existence.
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18791510
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On the birthday before he started school, he received a pencil case from his paternal grandparents. The violet, oblong pouch contained a pencil and a pencil sharpener in the same color. He didn't remember what had happened with the pencil or the sharpener, but he had…
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187921
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The Bridge Barstow had not wanted to listen to Griff. Griff was not making the right decisions, or he thought Griff was not making the right decisions. Thought he was walking a…
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18791412
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Behind them all, in the background, a tray of vodka tonics waits on a glass table, the limes losing color as they drown.
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18792118
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After the funeral there was a luncheon in the church basement.
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187800
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The tsunami started, ironically enough, with a phone call.
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187899
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“Have you ever thought what stars are made of?”
“No,” he said.
The man nodded seriously. “I hadn’t either. Not until I met the Star Catcher. He told me all the stars in the universe are actually coins. Coins! Big coins. Small coins. Different colors
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187883
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I walked on hot coals. She got ahead of me. (228 words)
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18781213
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The moonlight news is brutal
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187844
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She has a mercenary way of doing business and she's pretty shrewd. I make her stand outside to smoke her cigarette. I stay inside watching her stance as she violently tugs at the barrel, tearing every ounce of smoke out of it, then stamping it out as I wo
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18782212
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I liked the taste in my mouth, mint and cigarettes and fresh and filthy.
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187864
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"When we say something is good, beautiful, pious, or brave, what idea or image do we hold in our mind?"
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187800
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Unadorned tragedies pinpoint the worst angles of the road; simple crosses or bouquets line boulders painted with car crash smoke or skid marks that tiptoe to the edge of cliffs and then, apparently, leap.
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187897
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I’ve been such a fool, so reckless and untrue.
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187882
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the dogneck gave no support
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18782112
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It is a well-known fact that my wife sleeps around. There. I said it and now everyone knows that I too know about my wife. Let me just tell you this one thing; she has her reasons. You ask me how I know that she has her reasons, but who would know better than…
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187854
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While space and time opened up for us, the ground accelerated its attempts to devour the astronaut. Grasses grew up around his edges. Seeds propagated in the folds of his suit, tendrils found their way into the mysterious holes for the missing hoses that
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1877127
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Emma and I were in a shabby part of town with vacant lots and overgrown yards, and I wondered if something would happen as we loped beside Tom, who was slow-witted and 21. We were 13 . . .
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1877105
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It’s a song you knew once, begin to remember now: You’ve had this dream before.
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18772010
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The contrast can be summed up in a sip.
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187700
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When I finally went back to school in the fourth grade, after coming down with polio, my classmates were very welcoming, though I couldn't go outside and run around like them yet at recess or lunch time. That would come, just not right away. But it was th
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187774
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The investigator starts by accumulating facts, as many facts as he can. He sifts through them with meticulous precision, leaving no leaf unturned, no page unread.
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187700
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187733
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“Turn the fucking thing off!” I yelled above the noise. “It’s fucking New Year’s morning!”
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