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Penitentiary Toll

The blue Norfolk air Is familiar with sea gulls. The ground is crawling with cats. The random observer, going about his time, May carry a pencil and piece of paper, To hunt out remarkable quarry:            Today, Five cats, all furred-out in black and white      Patterns, were up in the same tree;      All out on…

Felicia

I The ghost of Raymondo Cruz leaned awkwardly against a far corner of the angled bedroom; by now Victor recognized that the mere slump of shoulders, the bending of wrinkled green slacks and a downcast skinny face signified nothing tragic; odds were high that Popps was only meditating, for no tears slid around; Victor, the…

Juggernaut

The big bus wheeled up to the open gate and stopped. The doors hissed open. Larry looked both ways, took a deep breath, and swung the gleaming monster out into the heavy afternoon traffic. Here goes! he shouted silently. He headed for downtown, thinking, Oh Lord, I can't do it. I'll crash. Within fifteen blocks…

Goodbye

On a Sunday morning in June, Paul and Judith finished cleaning their apartment, left the key in the mailbox, and drove across town to the house Paul had left on a gray and windy day last March. It was the first house his father had ever bought: a small yellow one with a green door,…

The Robber Bridegroom

The hump on her back was bad when she crawled out of bed at dawn to make breakfast for her grand-niece. It was an ugly hump, but small, almost unnoticeable when she wore large collars sewn with lace and ribbons. Now she didn't care. She pulled her bathrobe over the aching knot of spine. Last…

The Alchemist

Strindberg shouldered a cross and climbed two giant snow-covered breasts. In the crucible of his palms he said “Lead: turn into gold!” In a rooming house bed he felt the walls closing in, the roses plotting against him. And something else Strindberg did — when he drank pernod or anise, he watched a small child…