For a brief period – the fall after I graduated from college – I worked for Crow Brothers Construction Co. In those days, Crow Brothers were the dominant septic cleaner in the area. Their bright red pumper trucks were constantly crisscrossing the suburbs, pumping out accumulated sludge and ooze. I got the job because the […]
Delia and I used to play a game called ‟Flying.” I would call her and she would run headlong at me at the full churning tilt her little legs could achieve. When she reached me, I would grab her under her arms and toss her up into the air, converting, it seemed, the horizontal energy […]
When I moved to San Francisco, I decided to stop wearing a watch. I had worn a watch for 40 years but why did I need a watch? People in San Francisco don’t wear watches. I carried an iPhone wherever I went. I didn’t need a watch to tell the time. I would just look […]
I have written short stories for most of my life but only recently decided to see if I could publish some of my words. I had moved to San Francisco and everyone I met told me that I had to get my brand out there. I couldn’t just wait to be discovered. I had to […]
My friends and I were 15 that summer and we thought we had outgrown the suburban town where we lived. Center City, that seedy forbidden downtown core of Philadelphia, was as exotic to us as Baghdad. We were pulled there, the pull strong enough to pull a nail from a plank. In Center City, we […]
My first book, Nine Digits, is a comic novel for young adults. Nine Digits tells the story of a dysfunctional family chosen to compete on a reality TV show in which the winner will receive a prize of $100 million. The show’s producer shamelessly manipulates and humiliates the contestants in pursuit of higher ratings and […]
The large man across the counter took my form without looking at me. He was sitting in a small chair with rollers and he had it scooched to the side for more legroom, bringing him very close to a red headed co-worker sitting in an identical chair and serving a customer at the counter next […]
I moved to San Francisco after a lifetime on the East Coast and hadn’t even finished unpacking before I turned sixty. Everything about my new circumstances was strange. I no longer went to work. I did not know anyone. All the goodwill and stature and community I had built up after a career as a […]
The man paused on the doorstep, huffed into his palm to check his breath, and then shook his jacket straight. Ignoring the bell to the side, he gave a stout knock. A girl opened the door. “Hello?” She had a wide, serious face and the kind of long straight hair that falls like a shower […]
Imagined conversations, daily. Stories on Sunday.
Imagined conversations, daily. Stories on Sunday.
The two men were in the locker room. The tall one was stripping down after a sweaty workout. The short bearded one sat on a stool, tiredly pulling off his work socks, getting ready for his session in the gym. The tall one said, “Rodge, I never see you. How long you in for?” “Came […]
The Girl Who Didn’t Know What to Be was in school one day when Ms. Standly, her regular teacher, called in sick and so did Ms. Moore, who was Ms. Standly’s assistant, and so did half a dozen other teachers because the Have a Bad Day Flu was going around that month. And so that […]
(Pitch Dark. Two Voices, A Man and A Woman) “Did you hear him?” “I did not hear anything.” “I heard him. I definitely heard him.” “I didn’t hear anything.” “Are you getting up?” “I was up with him at 12 and at 1 and then again at 12:30″ “How did you do that?” “And then […]
I was sitting in a booth in a diner in the Mission, typing on my laptop. In the booth behind me there was a man and a woman. I could hear them well, but couldn’t see their faces without turning. The man had a low and scratchy voice. “You get enough to eat?” She had […]
The two men were standing by the big mirror in the locker room. The older one was on the way to a workout; the younger one was drenched in sweat. The older one was wearing a light blue tee-shirt on top of a grey tee shirt. He stood slightly off balance and tilted his head […]
Joan Didion once published an essay called “In Bogota” and years later, in a hotel in Italy, I came upon it and discovered that she had written about Bogota when I was living there. In fact, the hovel of a residencia where I holed up was only a few blocks from her magnificent Hotel Tequendama. […]
Imagined conversations, daily. Stories on Sunday. See the entire collection here.