Mice on Fire
The ants always burned too quickly for their adolescent pleasure. The three of them would spend weeks building the miniature metropolis in Sam’s back yard, and it was all over in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t fair. Or fulfilling. It would have to change.
They’d...
Milagros in the Bathroom
“Milagros, la verdad ó te atreves?”
“Truth”
“Did you make-out with the panadero on Monday?”
We all giggle. Rumor has it that half of the seventh grade has been fingered by the baker during
recess behind the basketball court. Rumor also has it...
Try My Shank
You’ve been one-legged since the lasso trap. Your personal ad says “Kids: undecided” even though you desperately want two.
When the maître d’ shows you to your blind date’s table, you are pleased with her prominent forehead and symmetric face. She has potential...
Photographed in Drag
That I was six years old and in the company of my father, whose inapproachability was increased by certain spatial proximities such as that which our weekly drive to the old-age home involved, with me seated next to him, silently counting the telephone poles flitting by...
Don Thacker’s New Film "Motivational Growth" Dares You to Like It
I can picture the faces of the executives as the film begins. It’s the first time they’ve seen it, the first time the director’s let anyone with money, or marketing savvy, or a neck-tie enter the screening room. The director’s taken precious care with this cut, with...
East to West
The phone will ring, a knock will come at the door “tattarattat,” a voice on the other end of the line will mention murder, and Sorenson’s partner, a detective he has been working with for the past fifteen years, will ask him to come down where the squad car will be...
Made Not Born
Denise kicked me out of our apartment two weeks before my 30th birthday, and Roy said I’d always have a place to crash with him, no problem. But my habit of working late into the night, of getting phone calls when he was trying to soak his feet, and the fact that I’m a...
War Buddies
A solo sailor is one thing. A solo flyer is one thing. People get used to the idea that a girl in her mid-teens can face air or water or wind on her own. They don’t trust her to face people. Not without being overborne in some way or other. A girl needs a protector on...
Necessary Corrections
Correction, March 17: A March 15 article on immigrants affiliated with the Russian Mafia purchasing real estate in New York City erroneously stated that Pavel Dostoyevsky is not related to the great Russian novelist. In fact, Mr. Dostoyevsky is the...
Millions of Them Washed Ashore
The long stretch of beach toward the tip South Padre Island was known for its shimmering white sands. My sister and I would play in the sand dunes and slide down as if it were fresh-fallen snow. Then, most days, we would run along the beach and bob in the water’s soft,...
