At 12:00, his wife called. Right on schedule. But he didn't hear the phone--the Bose headphones did their job. He saw his call-light blinking, saw her number on the caller ID, then watched as the voice mail notification went live. He kept eating and r

I stand near the old pier, looking out over Lake Wendouree. There has been enough rain to make a difference - the lake is filling slowly and soon it will cover Edith Delaney’s secret forever or for at least another lifetime.

“Pupilo Durcál!” She yelled. “You stupid pendejo!” He limped along without another glance. Rosa suddenly realized her dreams all week were really omens.

I rifled through the bedside table until I found dirty magazines

up against the strippers’ backstage trailer where Billy is soon enough spraying black bowel blood in geyser arcs, spitting teeth like ivory beads popped from the long wavy crimson chin strings;

We gave our cigarettes names.

Here was a book called The Secret Bookstore, about a character who goes into a bookstore and finds a book called The Secret Bookstore in which a character goes into a bookstore only to find himself reading a book he has written called The Secret Bookstore

As the light changed and exhaustion set in, Suzy and Molly batted back and forth one more knock knock joke to avoid going home.