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Ben heard his rental car in the driveway still ticking as it cooled
after his drive down from Denver. Saturday of a four-day weekend.
With his polished dress shoe he kicked a stone far out into the reservoir
and watched it hit the water and twinkle in the... read more
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Two meanly drunk strong hands grabbed Darcy tightly and
pressed her firmly into the crowd gathered by the exit door.
Loud Key West music pushed through stink and stale beer and sweat.
Two New York boys held her arms, and too much wine drowned her 22 year old... read more
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1
"My father's mind failed as he aged," Dango spilled words to his
his classmate Josh, between classes over coffee. Josh appeared a little stoned but Dango
continued anyway, "Just before he died, he remembered nothing of
his life. It was as if he never lived... read more
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Somebody gently shook Christi by her shoulders, so she raised her
head. The surface of her kitchen table glistened smoothly blue, a
sea where clam shells held naked white napkins erect, feathered
paper fanned open above red plastic plates smeared with the... read more
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Jim discovered Linda standing in the crosswalk in front of the
old Brady Cemetery. He noticed a small card with a glowing screen in
Linda's hand. "Hi Linda," he said. "What's that?"
The decrepit cemetery complimented the... read more
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In prior days, Frank had been a loaf of store-bought bread, squashed in the bag and out of shape.
So he had joined a gym and now jogged for hours up an endless hill and while he ascended watched Wanda climb the world's tallest staircase.
Every day he felt... read more
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Sendora stood atop a large brown boulder and scanned the flat desert
with her deep gray eyes. Brown scruffy dirt mixed with grating sand
moved and swirled under a bright-hot flat blue sky. The breeze, what
little of it there was, limped in from the south,... read more
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Duff Biggs grabbed the first hand he saw sailing past and before he knew
it he was waltzing across the dance floor. Duff was so damned old he
couldn't remember his own age anymore and he didn't care. Tunnel vision
was his bane, his curse, his personal... read more
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Jerry was waiting for a softball pitch that afternoon, wearing his extra-large
jersey that fit surprisingly snug with the number five on the front. He stood with
bat poised and for some reason forgot his own name. This confused
realization so startled him... read more
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Tina thought she was alone in the restaurant when she choked on a plum
pit. A bright window with the words "Juan's Cafe" backward on the
glass illuminated the room daylight bright on her left, and a mirror on
the other wall made the room look twice as big. ... read more
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Water spilled over the edge of the tub but young Fran didn't notice.
Her reflection suggested her eyebrows were off and she was trying to pluck
them into alignment. She gazed at one wild hair in the mirror and aimed
the tweezers. But before she could pluck,... read more
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Bob Fandele returned home late from work to find the ham sandwich still
on that small white plate in the center of the kitchen
table. "Damn," he said and picked up the sandwich. It felt soft and
ironic in his hand. "I've got to stop doing... read more
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The coffee was tepid and thin and weak enough to require mercy. Not a
manly cup of coffee, that was for certain, not a cup with any muscle at
all. Dan carried the offending cup back to the coffee shop's counter.
"This coffee is watery," he said, trying to... read more
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Sandra dreamed an uncoiling ribbon scaled and rough like asphalt yet
sadly tired, bored with the flat feeling of all that had never ever
happened. Her mind glowed bright and cast a shadow diagonally across
the ribbon, as if she were the sun and the ribbon her... read more
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I saw Dad jump over the house and the next day his legs were sore. He
didn't know I watched, of course. I had just gotten home from a
rough football practice and rounded the corner which brought the front
of our house into view. I saw Dad crouched on the... read more
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My mother ran away with a fortune teller. Or at least that's
how Dad told it. I was seven at the time and my brother Sam was
five. My name's Harry and we were on a vacation trip that took us to the
Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, and ended up in Las Vegas.
Our... read more
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"A lion escaped from the zoo and ate my homework." That was the
excuse used by young Marvin Gamely when he arrived at class without
his books that morning. He stood in front of the teacher's desk
and held up his ripped backpack as if it were evidence... read more
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Brad Cheque insisted his last name be pronounced
"Chay quay." But Lieutenant Harkness always pronounced it "Check."
The Lieutenant had once told Brad, "I ain't French,"
and that was that.
Lieutenant Harkness nudged the... read more
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George Olman descended treacherous stairs to the outbound platform
just as a K train pulled away. Walking down had proved difficult because he
had just left Sandy's party and was four sheets to the wind on brandy.
He leaned against the checker-board tile wall... read more
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Ellen Brandville lifted their welcome mat in preparation for
Halloween. She intended to replace the mat with a comic Halloween one that
howled like a wolf when stepped upon. She lifted the old welcome mat which
read simply, "Welcome,"
and tilted it backward... read more
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Crystal Muz swore she'd stop smoking any day now. But came the early
hours of the morning and she still felt that old ache. She
threw on what she could find, a sweatshirt and jeans, then headed out
to the tiny corner store to purchase a pack of... read more
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Carl sat across from Tucker in the other of a pair black sofas on
either side of a coffee table. The coffee table twinkling with LEDs randomly firing on
its surface. Both guys were tired, having just gotten back to Carl and
Audrey's place from the Outside... read more
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Jake Butteruth lay sprawled on the old sofa, a can of cheap beer in one
hand and a lit, unfiltered camel cigarette in the other. "Day five,"
he said to his live-in girlfriend who stood in the doorway and glared
at... read more
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Sally was superstitious about her purse. An ex-boyfriend
once told her, "Put your money in your pocket." She didn't remember
but she must have asked why. "You can lose a purse," he said. "But
you'll never lose a pocket." To prove him wrong, she at... read more
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Sally was worried, puzzled, and a little relieved when Tony returned
from his cruise on the Amazon and couldn't speak. Normally Tony
talked too much. Too much for his friends who claimed they were
used to his endless babbling. And too much for Sally, his... read more
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Times were bad in the valley. A black fungus had begun to kill the
corn. Breezy Wah held an old corn cob doll tight to her chest while she watched the
men, her dad among them, throw corn stalks on a pile and burn them.
Black smoke curled up high above the... read more
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She remembered the first time she had her face painted at a carnival.
How old had she been? Ten or eleven, maybe eight? Dora Winsten sat
in front of her tiny room's makeup table and looked at herself in
the tall bevel-edged mirror. The makeup table had been a... read more
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Frank Dubcheck rolled his electric wheelchair onto the concrete landing
where Montogery Street ended above Green. The landing began a long set of steps down
from Green to Union. Frank stopped, set the brake and looked down the
hard concrete steps. Brenda his... read more
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Rats crawled around her brain, black rats like those that roamed
the damp alley behind the local bar. Or maybe it
was spiders, big hairy spiders like the ones in the movies that ate
small mid-western towns. She couldn't always tell. But
they spoke to her.... read more
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Norman Fellows sat atop a tall wooden A-frame ladder and screwed a new flagpole
holder to the eve of their porch.
His wife Vera had announced just the day before
that they should fly seasonal flags beginning with that summer. The porch eve,
Norman noted, could... read more
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Lola gazed at six small stitches across the tip of her left index
finger. She remembered being a teenager so many years before. Over
dinner at the old kitchen table with its oilcloth table covering
of red and white checks, she remembered her Dad cautioned... read more
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The floor of the factory was brightly lit but deserted because, for
just the second time in her life, Zeta Upsilon had arrived to work
extra early. She hurried without running past all the silent black
hulking machines that smelled of oil. She turned right... read more
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Walter Burns sat in the bleachers behind the outfield, perhaps the furthest
away from home plate that one could sit. He brought his hunting binoculars
up to his eyes and gazed at the batter. "Swing," he muttered. "Swing and strike out."
But the pitch, he saw,... read more
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Jam Juanson walked the sidewalk with big steps to miss the cracks. He
was only a kid yet had gotten his first phone for his birthday just
that morning. As soon as the nurse had finished, he'd called his Mom and
Dad a dozen times each. Now he was walking to... read more
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Henry Stutzman was a middle aged widower again invited
five years later
to his late wife's family's annual camping trip.
Rather than feel odd-man-out, Henry invited his Uncle
Bruce to join... read more
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The failure of water to quench his thirst bothered
his wife more than it did Bob. "You drank beer all the time," she complained at him.
"It's about time you tried drinking water." She had drawn
water from the kitchen tap. Just as an experiment,
she had told... read more
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Sarah Marks felt as if she could explode. She was so frustrated
with her life she knew she would someday become pure
fireworks for the amusement of strangers.
Sarah had no friends, none of course like real friends,... read more
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Tom Middler stood on the corner of 2nd at Howard holding a bag of
freshly purchased red onions in a plastic sack. He bought them so
his wife could make quiche for dinner.
It was late Sunday morning and cleanup was still in... read more
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Young Wendy, still in grammar school, was puzzled
by the lunch lady's question. "Jumping Jehosphat girl,
where's you get this dollar?" The lunch lady was a stout
woman with a healthy voice. She dangled an open ziplock bag
in one hand, a wet dollar bill inside... read more
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Blaze's husband Jack was a tall thin man like the beanstalk. He was
the practical extension of herself. She sometimes thought that if she
could just tie a rope to his trunk, he could anchor her from drifting.
Yet they stood in the cold at the bus stop that... read more
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Mandy Rails hated hair-cut day more than any other day of the week.
Her mother made her and her two brothers line up in the kitchen every
Saturday morning after breakfast. They had to line up by height, Mandy
first, then Carl then useless Tom. They would stand... read more
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Joy Lutuski loitered for just a moment on the sidewalk outside the
vet's office. The weather outside was drizzly and overcast but not
raining yet. Grey like a wool blanket pulled over the city and
tucked in. Joy zipped up her green raincoat, a thin raincoat... read more
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Joe Hathay watched his boss Ned Mac sip cognac directly from a $150
bottle. They sat at opposite ends of a bus stop bench in bright
sunlight. Joe was still dressed in his white apron. Ned still wore his
purple blazer with the word Wiggles emblazoned on the... read more
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Wendy Donelly squeaked open the front door and entered the bar in
a wash of daylight. She found Elle had already started putting chairs on
the floor and wiping down table tops. Elle looked up at her, smiled
and said, "I already loaded ice in the... read more
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I greeted the young couple and noticed a smell about them that
reminded me of animals and dirt roads. I said, "A room, no doubt,
and for a small fee I can offer a warm bath."
The woman squinted at me. I noticed her... read more
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Thomas Dinco's son Blake sat at the other end of their old dining
room table still set with breakfast. His son was looking more lanky
by the day with his spiked head of blond hair and casual dress that
bordered on the slovenly. Blake slouched in his chair... read more
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At fifty-eight years of age, Fran Samuelson's husband Walter still
worked, still managed mens-wear sales for Macys. An ambulance had
taken him to Kaiser, the emergency hospital way out on Geary Boulevard.
Far away from their house in Piedmont across the bay.... read more
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Henry Dales stood at the edge of Justin Herman Plaza holding up his
new Pauseaux carbon-fiber bicycle. He had arrived early on the last
Friday of the month for the Critical Mass bike ride, and was relieved
to see his three buddies ride up. He waved to get... read more
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On her eighty-fifth birthday, Glenda Jones was down to just one
friend, the man who brought her food twice a day. She sat at the
kitchen table, like she always did, dressed in the kimono she'd
bought in Chinatown. She didn't like her kitchen chairs... read more
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The taste of rice, beans and salsa lingered in Luis Escabon's mouth
from lunch. He idly licked the last of delicious taste from his
lips and swallowed one final, satisfied time. His hands lay folded
over his comfortable belly. Sunshine warmed him. The stone... read more
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Sue Willow had dated Evan Zilleski twice before. She found him
bordering on harmless but mature, interesting and fun, but not
fascinating, definitely not fascinating. On their third date, Sue
munched idly on a garlic fry and watched Evan's... read more
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The pistol in his jacket pocket was heavy from waiting and
heavy from worry but not heavy from size. He'd found it in his wife's
underwear drawer, a tiny pistol almost a toy. He'd found the gun
there among her perfumy things in her bedroom along with an... read more
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Linda Chilless sat alone at a small table for two on the upper level of
the El Aviõn Restaurant in Costa Rica. She sipped rum mixed
with coconut-milk from a hollowed brown coconut shell.
A tiny umbrella seemed too touristy so she plucked it out... read more
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