Fiction

With each streetlamp we passed on our way to the marina, I could see the two young men in the back, sitting calmly but so clearly afraid—counting prayer beads or looking at signs over metal roller shutters on storefronts as if they could read Turkish. Next to me was Imad with one steady hand wrapped…

The nightgowns look promising on the rack, satin and glamorous. On me they’re saran wrap. I’m in the dressing room at a lingerie boutique, attempting to find something that might interest my husband. He’s coming home tomorrow after being away for two months. I want to surprise him, but every time I look in the…

The day came when we had trouble hearing, and Denorah and I got excited, for we’d have more wax to add to our Nostradamus baby. Denorah poured the warmed hydrogen peroxide into my ears, then I did the same for her. We gave each other time to let it tingle and foam, to shift the…

It was communion day when Pastor Short announced before the congregation his engagement to a woman who was not our mother. I learned people just feed the possessions of the dead to Goodwill, so they don’t sprout bad dreams that pretend to be memories. Instead of doing our little-by-little Sunday donations of Daddy’s clothes, we…

Me and T went to the Denny’s across from the hospital at three in the morning the night Mama tried to kill herself. T ordered a blt sandwich on sourdough with fries. I got the pancake breakfast with eggs sunny side up, hash browns, and bacon. The waitress was good. Never asked us how we…

The accident happened during the holiday between my third and final years at university. I had escaped the house I lived in with my mother for Olivia’s family mansion; turned off my phone for the weekend so my mother wouldn’t call to ask what I was doing, who I was doing it with, and why…

After the car door slammed— After the pain filled Don with lightning— After he saw the index and middle fingers of his right hand caught between the door and the door frame— After he pulled, but his fingers were trapped— After he tried the handle, but the door was locked— After he saw the keys…

She perfects her look on Myspace. The brightness and contrast in her photos are turned up to 70 percent so she looks like an animation most of the time. It’s the mid ’00s and she wears metallic cream eyeshadow, has red highlights in her layered hair, acrylics on her nails. Her belly button is pierced…

On our first date he brought me home to show his collection of bone records. He stood on a chair, pulled box after box from the top of a dusty wardrobe, talking about the music and how they approached doctors for old, discarded x-rays and then cut grooves into them using homemade lathes. I sat…