Heart Case
By now, her dating profile had eroded into basics—where she grew up, how she got to the Southwest, number of children and their ages, a bunch of statistics making her sound like her own social security bureau. Online dating was nothing like that–what an imbecile movie, how four seniors, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, […]
Testifying at the Shores of Online Dating
Online dater murder mystery.
Dog-walking
I was taking a long walk, the first day I had stepped out of the house in an unmarked direction, just a squiggly line on a trail map. I wanted to lose myself. My son had died a month ago from an advanced form of cancer. A distant figure with an assortment of dogs. Poodles […]
Antony and Cleopatra
“How’re you coming along with your contest entry?” asked AB at our weekly tête à tête in Barnum’s, a coffee shop with nice brown paneling, artwork on the walls by local school kids, altogether a friendly place. “I’ve been writing here at this table,” I said, but what she didn’t know was that I’d racked up a […]
App Developer Sued for Defamation
Labusu derives from the ancient Sumerian word for cloth, originally used to wrap up stuff from the marketplace. In 2025, electric car manufacturers bundled labusu with self-driving cars as thank you gifts, but as soon as they became available, they zoomed to the top of everyone’s holiday shopping list, morphed from a Sumerian cloth into a flattened smart phone about […]
Online Dating Contest
Annabelle was my best girlfriend and by that, I mean the one who’s seen me through a divorce, at least two abortions that I’m willing to admit, and the birth of one of my children with shit coming out of my rear end as the nurses tried to get my feet back in the stirrups. […]
The Divorce Column
They’d been married for more than 20 years but hadn’t lived together for most of that time, she firmly fastened like a paper clip to one side of the country, and he to the other, collecting frequent flyer miles in the space between. She made sure their children had a stable home, a decent school, a good […]
Gus Bigman, the Giant
There once lived a giant, not your ordinary run-of-the-mill giant. Spiders and beetles fought each other for a place to room in his greasy hair. He never brushed his teeth. They were greenish-yellow. Some people who lived in the next state over said they could easily pass out if they got downwind of his breath. Clearly, […]
An Extra Hand
Felix stared at a tree before the next kid invasion. All he had to do was pick up kids from school and bring them back to the community center. Easier than being a home aide and emptying bedpans. Better than delivering pizza to unmarked storefronts. Pick up bus. Pick up kids. He had a Class C driver’s […]
even the crazy ones sleep
She stood in the aisle dancing, her hands undulated in rivulets. Earbuds in, pencil thin jeans. Later when a bunch of people exited she sat down next to me and admired my rings. Said she always had trouble getting rings. “I never liked my hands. I think they’re ugly.” She had graceful small hands like […]