Stories tagged nonfiction

Mississippi Burning

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“There are no inhibitions in here,” the postman shouted, gesturing at the dance floor with his Marlboro Light, the glowing tip aimed at a woman in a taut skirt. Leaning far forward, her hands nearly touching the plywood floor, she planted her feet and beg

Inhale

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“Here,” she said, holding a plastic bag out to her daughter.“I have to do it?” The young girl whined, crinkling her nose as she remembered the way the plastic warmed in her fingers as she lifted the fresh dog poop from the grass.“My hands are…

Always a Story

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“Yesterday,” she begins, with a touch of drama, “I had a spiritual experience with a bird.”

Gasoline in E-minor

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Don't ignore me. You saw the man, you saw the woman, you saw their car. They have food wrappers on their dash and furniture in the back of their car. Observe, report, analyse. "Yes, that will be ATM."

Tornado Diary

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The storm grew in might until it spawned the worst kind of tornado, an F-5 or Finger of God.

Proud Mary

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Mary had no shoes. She told me they were stolen by someone at the shelter and I believed her because she stood there outside the Arlington T stop in a pair of tube socks. She told me she wasn't asking for money. She told me the shelter was serving seafood today so her…

How to Forget

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Refuse to go to the church service, even though you already missed the funeral. Tell his mother something came up. Call his phone over and over, just to hear his voice, until his mother asks you to stop. Make a recording of his voicemail. Delete it an

Breaking Dawn

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This is where he died, she says to me, and points to the damp pavement. Her hair is wet, and slicked against her neck. The humidity is making everything engulf her. The sleep shorts I bought her last July are loose on her now, but between the rain and

HVAC is so sexy. What?

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We had imagined making babies with ease, as if they were simply fruit- ripening on the trees around us- and all we had to do is stretch out our limbs and pluck. We never imagined that skill is involved, that heartbreak is required, and that the one simpl

Shout

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My damn thoughts scatter like mercury across the bathroom floor.

Freeing Annabel Lee

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It drifted into the sea, I say, when you ask me about home. You’ve only known me for a few moments, so you’re not sure how to gauge me. You laugh, and make an Annabel Lee reference. The English teach in me wants to hug you. The New Jersey in me wants

Lemony snickers on Route 66

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Went back to his cab and returned with a whip...

Shout to the dead

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All the years since, until this morning, I'd thought the actor was James Gregory.

Settling

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But she knew what she would find. She knew it all the moment she felt the sticky fingerprints behind the slat of her old oak slay bed. The fingerprints that would only be left from a person grabbing it from behind their head. The fingerprints that she

Downsizing

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Sometimes, when we discard things that we no longer need or want, we throw away pieces of ourselves.