1866 4 4
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Alma Tucker settled into middle age with the comfort that escapes most women. Her festival queen days gone. Along with her wispy waist and cherry blond hair, replaced by broader curves and graying tresses. She was content with the way age had changed her
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186601
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Jimmy Gollihue awoke to the howling of a bloodhound, a long voice from up the mountain, and the baying of the dog pulled a keening lament from his dream of the highway.
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186667
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“Too perfect.” my therapist intervenes in assurance, “You did enough, really. More than anyone else would.” I know the subtext is that I possibly did more than I should. My appointment is coincidentally later that day, after his goodbye letter arrives in
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18661716
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"Why so ornery?" she asked.
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18661616
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There's a mirror in front of me and I thought it was so I could see myself, but I didn't want to see me.
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186600
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On the other side of the world the Moon spun on its way.
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186622
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We passed a dead cat lying up against a guard rail, its fur stringing and wet and exposing its bloated skin which had a purple tint to it. Not my work, Death said, smoke trickling out of one eye socket.
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186552
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The storm grew in might until it spawned the worst kind of tornado, an F-5 or Finger of God.
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1865158
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Being simple like this, knowing a thing is done by doing.
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186588
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I know now, how she moves without verbs
after you crushed her into the river.
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18651310
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I need a different storage solution
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186422
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The mother was happy, though. She was happy because she could make him some soup and then she could feed it to him in bed.
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186400
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January 3rd EST/January 2nd PST 2002 It's 1:45 am or 10:45 pm depending on your philosophy about changing your watch when you fly. My plane is scheduled to land in San Francisco soon, but I'm completely disoriented because I've just had my first post-9/11 dream. …
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186410
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Azure became silent. She never thought of her death before, nor thought about actually fighting creatures and saving people’s lives.
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186320
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I made my way quietly out back and sat in Helga’s whitewashed porch swing, listening to the first faint sounds of big band music drift out of Helga’s open windows and into the cooling summer air. The darkness was moving in slow from the east, interrup
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186354
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The oven door topples off of its hinges as she kicks and climbs out. She growls and quickly slaps out her still smoldering sweater shoulder. Taking a kitchen chair by the back, she swings it over her head and shatters the window. The chair breaks into splinters as she…
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186343
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A great doubt had shut out the light inside us, but each of us called for our lover at the end, and she was generous. Carrying us along inside her over vast distances, chilling our soul with sudden terrible flashes of light.
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18631716
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Ed wants to watch the last half of the football game. His wife wants him to mow the lawn.
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186234
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We draw a treasure map in the sandwait for the waves to wash it awayI ask you not to leave me stranded hereIf I'm bound for hell, I don't want to be left behindThe sun breaks through the edge of infinityspills over the line, soaking the sky…
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186232
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This is what my summer has come to: me, out of a job, aimlessly driving around the city looking for places to write, places to read, places to occupy my time.
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1862129
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We were over Casper, Wyoming, when some terrorists tried to take over the airplane. They had concealed weapons.
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186244
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Rhonda looks guilty as it is, don’t you think? That hair! And the unhappiness smeared across her face like war paint after a war.
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186211
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My best friend and roommate Eliza woke up one morning with the sudden conviction that she had to become very fat, as soon as possible.
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18622211
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He tried to call on his break but she didn’t answer. He imagined her on the floor, sobbing, like she’d been the other day. The grey rat would have chewed through a plug-in or some wires and started a fire. She would be ashes, a blackened corpse, reeki
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1862139
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He saw symmetry, exquisite geometry, body and built world in harmony.
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186175
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When detox-man drives away, the windows down, the radio playing on the classic rock station (The Eagles), he thinks about moving out of town.
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1861179
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I turned on the television last night, and one of the networks had a segment about a girl with no nose.
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186151
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“What about the other groups coming here?” I ask. “Were they asked what they wanted in these houses?” She turns and looks at me, like I've suddenly come onto her radar.
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186110
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That stupid bastard seemed to defy death at every turn in his life. His actions suggested invincibility, but his catch phrase indicated full awareness that he was indeed quite vincible.
And how fitting was his name. We didn’t know if it
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186100
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The number 25 double-decker bus threads its way through the narrow two-lane streets. Coughing and burping without a hint of embarrassment, it carries us from the train station, with its cheerful round clockface and neat front of red brick, over the weepin
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