On the basis of what I took to be his vandalized spirit, he could have been my father. “Can you help me?” he said. “Follow me,” I said, absent the intonation of a leader. I wanted to go to the top—but this man, he looked as though he had fallen. (On his jeaned knee, some […]
Excerpt from South
The empty hallways were covered with worn-out carpet. A ventilator worked against the smell of fish, burnt fat, and sweat. I felt a pain behind my eyes, in my temples. Some of the cabin doors had numbers on them. A sign directed me to the cafeteria where the night workers were eating dinner. I could […]
Changes
The hooker slips his shirt off. In the moment where he can’t see me I steal a glance at his chest. His ribs. The lines of muscle showing abdominals. Not an ounce of fat. I look away before I’m noticed. For years I’ve printed shirts in this shop for a man teetering on the edge […]
All I Heard Was the Humming of Machines
The empty hallways were covered with worn-out carpet. A ventilator worked against the smell of fish, burnt fat, and sweat. I felt a pain behind my eyes, in my temples. Some of the cabin doors had numbers on them. A sign directed me to the cafeteria where the night workers were eating dinner. I could […]
The Emperor
When I was younger, I worked for some years as a tutor for a little boy who was the scion of a very wealthy family with its own peculiar culture and a whole battery of customs I never fully understood. I lived in a little cottage on the family property. Besides me and the boy, […]
Parenthood
We came up with it while driving home from dinner. The sky, I remember, had that early morning brightness, though it was nearly ten at night, and there was a full moon without any tricks—no superpowers or strawberry hues or harvest indications. Just light that shone everything into blue. It looked like the world when […]
Angela Lives
Angela lives in a house on W. 83rd St. Angela is thirty-one. She has mid-length brown hair. She’s on the taller side of average, and her face is relatively thin. The house is large, and quiet. It has a dark wood interior. Many windows let cold light enter. Angela lives in the house, and it […]
Warmer and Farther from the Windows
In the house I grew up in, I am in the living room with the high ceiling and the low carpet. My wife is in the kitchen turning either side of the kitchen-sink faucet to make sure one of them comes out hot. The house is ours, if we want it. Uproot and all? she […]
Exclusion
Defi’s left knee was torn out from a ski accident. Sitting in her own apartment, she waited for her friend, Han Solo, to come and help her move. When he arrived, standing in front of her front door, he looked up and down at the boxes of clothes, her laundry basket, her table and chair, […]
My Treat
What else is left for me to come right out with other than a simple list of everything blood has turned out to be no thicker than—viz., both parents, an ex-spouse, my daughter and her selectively unhappy brother? Father was a spuddy little fellow uncolored by anything in life. My room had always had too […]
