SoCo, Burnette's, Grey Goose, Bacardi. The good stuff. We drank Bill’s stuff because his parents were lawyers and loved to drink too. We just drank when everyone was asleep. Sometimes we’d invite our friends, or girls—but mostly it was just us. You could

Behind me, I heard the whispers, the accusations, and the story. There had been a blow job. Suzette was involved. And I was the face of all that whoredom that our family now represented.

“They won’t ring no bells for you, sonny” she said, “that’s a done deal for sure. Bells no longer vaunt the birth of children, you little louse; they call out the birds of war now.”

I will always blame myself a little for Gramps's dying when he did. I know my guilt is not clearly rational, because I was only eleven and I thought at the time what I was doing was for the greater good. I still believed it when I stood at his coffin...

She followed the husband. He headed north on seventy two for twelve miles, turned off at exit eighty seven b, slowed, turned, backed into a spot at a convenience store slash gas station, lights on, engine running. Precisely twenty seven minutes by her count,…

Von Meckel had us all go out and paint this huge red square around the Red Diaper Baby factory. Then he held a big naming rally, at noon, during our lunch break. We weren’t allowed to eat our sandwiches. There was all this pomp and circumstance. We were

A horn honks, brakes squeal, Chloe’s screaming, pulling at her. She’s lying on the sidewalk. Her shin hurts. Her knee. Chloe kneels beside her. Ring of kids staring. I’m good, she says. I’m good.