1472 15 13
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Sixteen years married, and now she wants a wedding ring. He brings her a box of Cracker Jack. She doesn’t think it is funny.
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147221
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At 1 a.m. Route 205 is empty. Del drives. Carla sits in the darkness with the directions to the Nassau County Jail on her lap...
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147294
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“Why do I have to sign these cards? You haven't written your dreaded holiday letter yet.” “I told you not to complain or you'd be the one writing it. And addressing the envelopes. Then you can stamp them and take them to the Post Office!” …
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1472125
|
I wanted to watch, for as long as I could, until my innocence, like balloons, disappeared from view.
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147264
|
The last time Ray and I broke up, I flew my flag at half-mast. It was the kind of thing that pissed him off. He was very big on flag etiquette: how the flag should be folded, the fact that it should never touch the ground, when to fly it at half-mast, the rules regarding…
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147193
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I used to sneak away to my bedroom to write. I would get away any chance I could to jot down on paper my stories, my ideas, the rich stream of goodness that sprang from my little baby creative brain. It was pure joy.
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14713012
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What scares her about libraries are unshelved books, the ones you thumb through while you are waiting for the elevator, because you realize that there are too many books in the world and you are holding that particular book only because it is lost.
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14711613
|
The boy giggled, splashing his father and howling at the cold.
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147100
|
At the time I first went to work for Mr. Byron my family was in a sorrowful state. My dad, much as I can recall, was one of those roving kinds, called himself a carpenter or contractor, depending on the kind of job he was aspiring to, and was subject to f
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1471106
|
It was fun, until he started winning every time.
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147135
|
The vampire donated floodlights so the children could play ballgames at night. The lights came on but the dugouts remained vacant. The vampire sat alone in the bleachers. “Sometimes I am less than the sum of my parts,” he said to the sum of his parts.
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147061
|
“Your children are beautiful,” she said, handing back his wallet after removing several bills. Her mouth was fringed by bitten-off melon lipstick, a calm kind of mad. She told him to call her Sally, “like the song McCartney rips his lungs on.” She…
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14702812
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She remembered the feeling of weightlessness, of being lifted against gravity, the soft whoosh of tulle...
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14702117
|
For my Dad
Happy Father's Day!
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147055
|
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147020
|
I linger and pretend that I’m not there,
you find me in the end but I’ll not dare
to speak the words I only know to write.
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146977
|
Tsunamis are quiet at first:
not one big wave but many
small injustices, so chaotic
all the pressing all the weight
of the noise, like a stone
holding you under.
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1469115
|
A compliment is candy to the heartbroken, oxygen to a suffocating flame. The best hunter picks his prey carefully, selecting his line like an archer pulling an arrow from a quiver, quickly and efficiently, then flick! the line cuts through the air and…
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146977
|
My face turns to promise more, but my insides are browning.
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146922
|
"Don't fuss, hon. I just lick it off like tequila."
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146973
|
Why don't we do it in a yellow submarine?
|
146997
|
I never looked at her face.
|
146902
|
I might as well just keep driving. Past my exit. Beyond my job. Just drive. Until the tank runs out of gas. A blank future is better than this bleak one.
|
146900
|
I'm getting self-righteous here, Dear Reader . . . [hey! wait a second! this is my diary! what are you doing, looking at it, dude! Hit the road! Scram! Vamoose!]
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14691212
|
you were very very small, you were everso small, you were like – the tiniest creature, hopping about on one leg
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1469124
|
The fettuccine is a disaster. Mini-ants have invaded the container. Barry spots them in the boiling water after pouring in the pasta, not much more than floating black specks, but too many to ignore. He dumps out the pasta and returns to the closet to…
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1469126
|
“Jesus fall the second time. You want a map? Ten shekels.”
|
146951
|
Two fine-young-things scan the menu board of In-N-Out Burger off Interstate 101. Dressed like twins -- hoop earrings, tank-tops and mini-skirts, ballet pumps — you could hardly tell them apart, except for their Cleopatra and Marilyn Manson hairstyles. As they…
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14692212
|
So, how did they meet? After years and years of starvation and gruesomeness and lack of human contact because there were no humans left, only walking corpses, a woman gently lifted the sixty-pound dead man's penis with a cool washrag and wiped him clean. The dead…
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146961
|
Nora never dated Scandinavians.
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