Billy Goat Gruff: Rae-Ann (3)
But Eudora wasn’t the only one who shared their private business with Rae-Ann. Maybe it was because there was something in the way she presided over a sea of six-packs and zip-lock bags. Or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the store was a frequent contributor to the town’s soccer and […]
Rae-Ann, the Trusted One (2)
Every morning after she had switched on the lights and turned up the thermostat of the Half & Half, she thanked Earl for taking such good care of her. He had been a good man; after his funeral, all the store regulars had mailed her condolence cards in tones of silver and violet that she arranged on the fireplace mantle, and for the first few months, touched each one as she walked in circles from the living room to the kitchen.
Adam & Eve Discuss Retirement
After Adam and Eve got expelled from the garden, there was no more low-hanging fruit to pick from the Tree. Anyhow, there was no need to pick because they’d already figured out that they weren’t going to live in a perfect world. In this imperfect world as soon as they touched a branch, berries no […]
To One Young Enough to be in a Car Seat
Always dangle tangerine peels over your brother’s head until he agrees to roll down the window. Always keep a small house in the kitchen where ants can tell each other stories about the worms they’ve run into, a place with an umbrella to protect them as they gather bread, honey, and all the dinner you […]
North Lake Merritt Bench Crone
She sits on a bench wearing a carved tree resin rose black garbage bag filled with acorns, eucalyptus leaves, her bandages of flesh. Whatever she finds she stuffs into her hotch-potch pot, plastic water bottles discarded after a three-mile run, flyers from a flea market. She conducts a crowd of seagulls away from her lack […]
The Land of Silence
This is a story about Randy and June, who lived in the Land of Silence. Every day they walked five miles outside the city to pick walnuts from the walnut trees, which is how they got enough to eat. But in order to have a cot to sleep on and a well to wash their […]
Why the Telephone Pole is not a Shrimp
There was a telephone pole two inches tall. One night in New York City on January 3, 1948 at three o’clock in the morning, the pole said, “I wish I were two fee higher.” The pole did not know it, but just as he spoke, there was a falling star. About one hour later, a […]
The Story of the Hydrant
Before there were cities, the hydrant lived beneath the ocean. That’s where she got all her water. When the fish were thirsty, they swam up to the hydrant’s nozzle and sipped. Then they went to sleep inside their coral beds. But there was an evil sea-dragon named Shemi Parami who lived at the bottom of […]