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The ticking must have gone on for an hour before Kathy realized it wasn't a clock. When the line finally moved, the rhythm changed. When the queue stopped again, she glanced behind her and noticed a woman in torn jeans and a filthy sweater tapping a heel on the…
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120042
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My playing would falter languidly, and transcend itself like a wishful Nocturne
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The manicured lawn rolls down either side of the knoll, punctuated with flat granite plaques, the occasional bouquet of cut flowers, a smattering of faded eight-inch American flags.
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Granddad listened to Elvis and then he would talk more or less the entire night. “Mystery Train” was Sam Phillips' song. Then Presley recorded it, but did it up different, sounded much faster so you could feel your hair blow back a bit. …
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77900
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Whoa! Whoa! This just in! You mean we were minutes away from some kind of immanent Greek tragedy!!?
Let me get this straight. I cheated one time on Jolene with Jolene’s baby-sitter (you!), whom she used to cheat on her husband (with me)? I guess I’m luc
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The box kite floats high over the marsh.
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He will later claim he knows nothing of the girl’s disappearance and that I was the last one seen with her, which will unfortunately be true but not the real story…
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the arc of her invective presumably aimed at the little boy and girl ambling halfway down the block behind her
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They looked like girl’s jeans. Matt held them against himself in the mirror. Not that girl’s jeans were a mark against them. Usually, girls had better jeans anyway. Matt took two of the biggest pairs out of the big chest in his grandmother’s back closet.
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Each person in each car could be poetic/
Duende, but they look at each other and ask/“Did you fart?”
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I considered my choices, then asked the question that has brought my wife so much pain over the years. "Which is cheaper?"
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I wake up on the edge of the mattress, teetering. The dog is looking at me funny.
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. . . clinging to life in a shroud of winter air. It veered up five flights to a sweltering summer night on the roof . . .
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The stick had a head and a face and a swirling robe, all etched in wood.
It was the 14th Dalai Lama.
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You can’t take a chandelier on an emergency dash across a nuclear desert.
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9500
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Young Prince, drowsy, escapes his Royal Tutor for the kitchen. Sitting on a wood block, he follows the swing of Royal Cook cutting a bullock. Crrk with each swinging chop. Wssh with each rent of flesh."Well done," cries Young Prince."Sire, it is The Way.…
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My usual angel fell from the ceiling and onto the couch.
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Culloden County, MS - 1989 All Janine knew was the idiot had a gun. As to why he would ever need one was beyond her. He couldn't look dumber holding it, either. He was too small for it, or at least he looked that way to…
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100921
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The chipping sound started around the time Susannah reached puberty. Not all at once, it was just now and then at first.“What's that noise?” she'd say, and everyone would cock their heads to listen. Her mother eventually took her to the doctor. He said it…
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77020
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I knew this woman would come up eventually. She used to wait on us at Villa Nova, while a bunch of us sat drinking
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134442
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While I was still new at Black & Twigg, shortly before Thanksgiving, Percy brought me a handwritten memo to type, the subject “Turkey Hunt,” addressed to all Black & Twigg employees in the San Francisco office from management. It said that the firm…
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The squad comes upon two of the long-snouted dogs gnawing at the bloated carcass of a third.
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There was something wrong with this picture. Was he the man she had slept with last night?
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She’s new, with the enthusiasm of a new person. And everyone wants the new girl.
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Five years ago—or maybe ten—I clipped an article containing a quote that has haunted and inspired me ever since, and tacked it to my wall. Describing the success of diplomats from nearly ninety nations to convene in Oslo, Norway, and agree on the wording
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126021
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Once a month I fuck the boss. It’s not part of my job description. We have a meeting in her office, after thirty minutes she opens the door to what appears to be a storeroom but is actually a well-appointed fuck chamber ...
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Smoke from the oil lamp traced the wall. It gave Nana something to read.
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The calls come in a few times a week. When the unknown someone calls Safety Now, Radon Testing and Elimination Headquarters, Mrs. R. wonders who it is that just sits silently on the other end of the line. She wants to say, "Look, if you're a bill colle
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I remember Freddie K bringing these fat Thai joints back with him from Viet Nam, and just one of those things would get us all so stoned at parties in Jolene’s upstairs apartment that we felt as if we could float down the long flight of stairs like we w
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