I invade dumpsters. Eyes widen, surveying Keystone Light cartons, corn stalks, and empty steak packages. I conjure barbeques, gesturing arms, and laughter. Have another beer, some steak. I taste smiles. Voices offering beds. Welcome. Caught. Cold eyes dissect stench—beard. Bum, wanderer. I hold dreams. Try […]
I was sitting in the end booth minding my own business. I always mind my own business. The corned beef was on its way. After so many years, Jennifer knows what I want, and I’ve been on a serious corned-beef kick. The Clayton Diner’s known far and wide for its sandwiches, especially the kosher ones. […]
Palm Springs is a pastel city. Everything in it has a tint of gray, its buildings, its furniture, the clothes worn by its people, and most of all, in their sexual proclivities-ambiguity. So, when they found Stoddard Wells dead, splayed out in a sterile alley near a large potted plant, in his only suit, wearing […]
The Wife sits in a green vinyl chair next to Husband’s mechanical bed in the Oncology ward of Baylor University Research Hospital. Poison drips into his arm; professionals call it medicine. She snaps shut her Selected Stories of Alice Munro; the sound is like a snowball thudding against the glass, its flakes flying this way […]