Most read stories

the Case of the Smelly Rug Adventure

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I didn't know what to do, really, but I had to do something. After all there was no one left to be the real bona fide hero to this story, except for me, the guy who wasn't any kind of a hero at all. I mean I could hardly move an inch, rolled…

A Rave for "How the Sixties Ended"

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"At a bare minimum it deserves to be a major cult hit."

A Noir Celebration

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A kind of sucking darkness into A kind of noir celebration of despair

War Bride

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Maria met her husband in World War Two. Maria is now eighty-two. She is from the country of Tuscany. She has lived in may countries. She was a war bride. She has a son. Maria's son is sixty-three. As a baby-boomer he won't retire until sixty-five Maria says.…

Bell Ringer

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Zal’s first day on the job they had 16 customers. They took turns crying, “Bring out your dead!”

PTSD

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the queue for hell

Five Million Yen: Chapter 71

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It was that awkward time when one didn’t know if the night’s lover wanted to see you again.

1. The Knife (or, Ignorance is Bliss)

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He showed me the knife, said it was his best friend. This knife is older than you, he said. Here, run your finger along its blade. Like this. He showed me how to do it.

Warm Sand And Black Heaven

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He met her at midnight just off the plane and they sized each other with silent growing awareness that no matter what might transpire in distant tomorrows, each served here now as passports to magic and lands far away. On the…

The Garage Sale

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She excelled at plowing forward. He excelled at staying in one place. Eventually the distances got too great and she put an ocean between them.

His Bus

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He'd always considered it his bus.

Five

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"It all began with a painting," I said. "Mostly blue. Acrylic. Naturalistic in a modern sense. She was stylized but recognizable, and her breasts were exposed. Everyone could see her disordered skirt. The painter was a fan of Herrick.

ok

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this doesn't turn me on

The Further Chronicles of Mars (tribute to Ray Bradbury)

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And in the dark caves a new secret, hidden from flyby probes and the imagination of men. In these new caves, names for the loved ones, Bradbury, Clarke, Rover

Five Million Yen: Chapter 73

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The pawnbroker sat behind bulletproof glass at the rear of the display area, a veritable potentate of hope and cash, exchanging expendable items for derisory cash.

Saint Basil's

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The last of the Kazan Tatar Khans. Each dome represents a severed head.

DOMA Do-Do

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His smartphone rang. A picture came up of him kissing the blonde.

No Alternative

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* — Eligibility conditions apply, no purchase necessary.

whoosh

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i learned all

Five Million Yen: Chapter 63

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Gringovitch sat on the big leather chair in Olivia’s suite. Before him on a coffee table were the nude sketches he’d made of her earlier that day.

Elegy for the Sun

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When winter comes again…

Initial doubts

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"Well, you certainly can't be marrying him then .. "

Seamstress

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The cab split the thread of oncoming traffic into water barrels and telephone poles.

Easter

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This was how he circumnavigated people, bartering like a viking setting prices on the edge of an ax-blade.

Fifteen

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Lucy entered the open door next; she had been inside the cat litter house before: Brother Fran didn’t bother to cover turds he’d laid. He spoke of the outdoors: lizards he’d separated from their heads, world of work.

On Senior Prom & Being Profoundly Unpleasant

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When I was in high school, we had a prom. The juniors were paired with the seniors; and when I was a senior, I recall meeting my date for the first time. You can imagine she was not enthralled.

Seamus Has the Palsy Now

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Seamus’ hands are shaking now that once were still as stalking cats.

Why?

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A perennial question.

Gray Lizard

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He can’t enlarge the rock—/ can only find its safest distance

What happens when you listen too much

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It's definitely not her pretty face that made him smile so quirkily when she returned in the evening.