Most recent stories

Casting It

15631563 views1010 comments55 favs

Truth came out of it, a little bug that hovered there...

Amelia

14341434 views99 comments66 favs

Every time she tries to sleep they come; legions of small armored things scuttle claws aloft across the purple sand as soon as she stops moving.

the first time I met Terry

10361036 views55 comments22 favs

I remember the first time I met the virgin, Terry (not Mary.) She was in the back seat of an old Plymouth convertible with its top down, jam-packed with raucous high school girls vying to see which one of them could be the most loud and obnoxious, and w

Merry Christmas

11981198 views1111 comments88 favs

He picked at his food. The teen-aged boys gnawed the bones. The conversation was nothing he was interested in. Chitchat and family jokes.

SantaBot, Can You Hear Me?

13561356 views88 comments44 favs

Mimi: Santa, I am so down with taking a number, but I really can't have you reading that particular story. Santa: Let me be the judge of that. I am Santa. I give presents to kids.

Miss Miriam

945945 views22 comments00 favs

Miriam smiled as I entered through the old, creaky metal front door of her home. She sat still, face marked of deep wrinkles, tense with the pain only another cancer patient would understand. In that soft, sweet, melodic voice, she greeted me. '"Hello Ms. Monica, I've been…

Casablanca Or Something Like It

11691169 views22 comments11 fav

"More and more levels of physicality. And his eyes, man. His eyes were all wet, and... sparkly.” “Wow.” “Yeah. And before I can stop the escalation, he's massaging my heart.” “Get the f__k out..."

First Kiss With Rubber

16121612 views88 comments33 favs

Julie studied her brush, plucking a strand of hair from it. She looked up and smiled. "My mother thought you were a peeper."

Freedom

11141114 views00 comments00 favs

the darkness held frieghtened by the surveillance of a distant white shimmer.

On Reading Yeats' "In Memory of Major Robert Gregory"

943943 views33 comments11 fav

Two logs to make a fire burn, one real, one fake, for we have learned that's all an evening fire takes.

on a long suburban plain

922922 views22 comments11 fav

We were stuck sweating it out on a long suburban plain when you left. Or else we’d mob the one visible hill (in Palos Hills, or Hillside) and turn the televisions on, looking behind us nervously, hopelessly, until every evening became a Wednesday evenin

A Memo From The CEO

954954 views22 comments11 fav

Over the last 30 days we have seen a radical decrease in our revenue stream. Our Q3 earnings fell dramatically short of what we had projected, and as a result the leadership team has had to look at some difficult cost-reducing measures.

Arcana Magi Memorial - c.3

13251325 views00 comments00 favs

Despite the light of the torches, the darkness around them was overwhelming. They could not see the walls unless they leaned the flames close.

Storm Chasers

10921092 views00 comments00 favs

“Okay,” I say, “but my point is the only way you’d ever know if someone really loved you is if they put their life on the line when it counts. Otherwise you gotta take their word for it.”

The Magic Treehouse

935935 views00 comments00 favs

It was an unseasonably warm day in early spring when I first saw the man in the treehouse. The boys had just climbed onto the school bus, the older with shoulders hunched, weighted down with the gross unfairness of his early adolescent life, the younger still scribbling…

and dark blood flowed out of our youth

774774 views00 comments00 favs

I remember this shot taken of you in a bright blue summer dress, with your arms spread out, leaning against a wood fence near the beach, or by Lincoln Park maybe, your thin body leaning back and long blonde hair down bare arms. Other men will remember h

The Arctic Express

11041104 views22 comments22 favs

Sky: Snows, turns dark. Street: Freezes. Remains on a hill. Traffic: None on this block. Two: Did I miss the bus? One: You either missed it, or it didn't come. Two: Hasn't come. One: One or the other. Which one? Two: I don't know; I asked you. One: I meant which…

Missing the Bus

11941194 views2222 comments1010 favs

Something about her eyes...

Cast list for a play

12161216 views55 comments22 favs

Felix, vigorous vendor of Viagra and part-time picture framer, well-fed and fond and faithless as his spouse

Sad without Tears

10321032 views11 comment00 favs

Sometimes, to be sad, you don't need tears.

Born Lucky

10611061 views33 comments11 fav

He's gonna find he wasn't born lucky after all, his propaganda has got up on the wrong side of the bed and sidled onto the couch.

Fine Yellow Dust

13391339 views22 comments11 fav

In the dream Yesler rolled, a broad avenue made of fine yellow dust, from Third down toward Second, and I made my way in the silence and bright morning air. To my left on the corner of Second stood the old Mocambo cafe and lounge, home to drag…

Tough Love

10821082 views00 comments00 favs

If they don’t cover consequences in your gifted and talented program, you may care to research it.

Crossing Over

10431043 views00 comments00 favs

Joan's biospy showed the cancer had come back. Instead of preparing herself for chemo, she booked us plane tickets to the Galapagos. “Death can wait another ten days,” she said.

On Being Choked

11611161 views11 comment22 favs

I was sitting at my desk at work and couldn't figure out why it felt like a person with a very weak grip was trying to strangle me. Then, I realized I was wearing a scarf.

The Widow

10001000 views00 comments00 favs

When the village slept, the men came knocking.

Louise at Christmas

12401240 views11 comment22 favs

My brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them ..

it was after a revolution, or a war, or some disaster

10841084 views66 comments33 favs

I had this dream. We were living together, and we were in bed asleep when strange, enormous cats began crowding around our windows and meowing. They made awful scratching and scraping noises at the windows, trying to come in. But I couldn’t wake you up.

Love Lost

13721372 views55 comments33 favs

She came to my house late that last night and shucked off her things and we slow-danced to Cruisin' as beaded rainwater slid off her black hair to the floor. She smiled an almost quizzical smile as she drank me there with her eyes, as if I was some…

Bonne Fire

12971297 views55 comments22 favs

And the voodoo pins pinged as, folding and imploding, she was reduced to a petro-chemical puddle.