Brad continues to grip Melanie’s wrist, not with any pulling or twisting, just fast and firm enough to let her know he does not want to turn loose, and she breaks eye contact with him and looks down at the floor.

Still, he holds her wrist with steady, waiting pressure, but he swears in his heart he will not reach out and take her chin and lift her face and brush her hair from her eyes; instead he waits, because he knows she is not trying to be demure whatsoever, but is looking at all…

Brad and Melanie work in the same small room all day, every day, doing monotonous tasks for an exclusive retailer, like putting price stickers on things and preparing items for shipping.

They have been doing this for a long time, and whenever Melanie has to make her way across the floor, which is usually littered with empty boxes and crates that the custodian has not come to retrieve, Brad scrambles to move things out of her pathway and frequently takes her by the hand, to aid her…

We will learn about:

Frozen.

Vacuum packed.

Precooked.

Microwaveable.

Vegan.

Haggis.

The regal goddess Athena stood on Mt. Olympus and saw mortal men in sandals and flimsy togas (I know toga is a Roman term, but they look the same don’t they?) down around the unfinished Parthenon, slipping and sliding in the dust as they tried to hoist gigantic columns with various ropes and wooden wedges.

She sent her owl forth to the Oracle at Delphi with a message that read, “Are those dumbasses down there ever going to finish that temple?” and the Oracle replied, “Not without some…

Mistress Kitten wants to know why you are late for your appointment, as she does not like to be kept waiting, but as soon as you begin to explain, she tells you to shut your mouth and take off your clothes.

You bend over to untie your shoes, and feel a sudden sharp sting on your buttocks and Mistress purrs, “Did I say shoes?” her heavily lined eyes wicked slits above a mouth you would pay hundreds of dollars to kiss, and probably never will, as Mistress bestows those kinds of…

Occasionally, when my friend Harvey calls me on the phone, I can hear the syllables he says but I can't string them into words.   It's as if my consciousness has moved to a cardboard box and my brain is playing fort inside.  The problem has gotten so bad I don’t even hear the intonations that a question is approaching.  Sort of like a big sister hitting the side of my fort box with a broom - his questions make me jump, but I don’t know what to do.  Know what I'm thinking of while these…

I unzipped my pants and pulled them down to  my hips so that the lacy edge of  my panties would show, and I lifted my shirt up to my midriff and walked up to the chair he was seated in.

“My back hurts,” I said, and he placed his beefy arms around my middle and rubbed that spot that always hurts with the exact right amount of movement and pressure.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and he said to me in the most tender way, “You always need something, don’t you?”

Then he…

I can see just enough of the street in front of the house to glimpse the edge of a happily overgrown loropetalum, a curly leaved ligustrum, and the roofs of cars glinting by in sunlight that grows more summer white every day.

The families across the street have small children, so there is something to mark the passing of time when the school bus drops them off, with its insistent beep that we all watch out for little ones; they could fit into their own bookbags.

My dogs have…

I have a private island, and have kept it a secret from you for many years.  It was necessary, in order to protect my solitary world from unwanted influences, for you see, on my private island there are certain rules, and I needed to make sure you were ready for them.  You cannot turn on the lights or the radio if someone is sleeping, and if you need to swear because you are angry, you must use the yard (this includes arguments).  Only happy swearing is allowed in the house or on the porch,…

What degree of vanity would lead you to have a surgical experience similar to getting a tattoo all over your face all at the same time (and I most definitely know what getting a good-sized tattoo feels like), or holding your head over an open flame until your hair singes off?

If this seems crazy to you, it is likely you will never experience what it feels like to get a complete laser resurfacing of your face.  When performing this procedure, they intubate and anesthetize you, put…

“Dwight,” I said, “I know you have accepted my alcoholism and addiction to heroin, and your support of my attendance at NA and AA meetings every night makes me know how much you care.  Some things happened while I was out there you should know about before we go any further, and I am so afraid I will frighten you away, but the program says ‘You are only as sick as your secrets,’ and I wouldn’t want you to find out these things from someone other than me.  So here goes…before I got hooked on…

Make me slow down to read your words twice, three times, to think about the syllables and how they resonate.  Make me uncomfortable; make me squirm.  Send me to Google something; make me figure it out for myself.  Show me something I wish were mine; show me the undiscovered in my singular heart.  Lay yourself bare.  I am a gentle reader.

“You talkin’ ‘bout aftah school, boy?” Mr. Turnbull asked him,

putting his cigarette down into a blus metallic tray full of butts.

Turnbull’s pants were the standard coverall grey that Esso required all its distributors to use,

but his shirt was something he might have worn to church ages ago,

and being thrifty, turned it into a work shirt.

It likely fit better then too, as the button holes were being strained by buttons that,

if they were to give…

Ignoring the headache given to him by his throbbing bitten ear,

he went into the owner’s office, a grimy cube with large windows

which looked like they had been misted by a dingy film,

housing an upright soda chest with a nickel slot and a narrow little door

which was propped against the wall next to the garage.

It was painted an unmistakable shade of red.

An arm was released when you paid so you could open the little door and pull out a cold…

What he worried about

were snakes falling out of trees,

which was not an altogether unfounded state of mind.

His neighbor, Mr. Heath, had a snake drop into the back seat of his car

one time when the top was down,

and he did not even know it was there

until he got out of the car at his tobacco warehouse

and saw it there all coiled up and hissing.

There were folks who took that as a sign,

but a sign of what he could not…

He wondered if people looked like that from God’s perspective,

as all have done at one time or another, and if so, were they

equally indistinguishable and as seemingly random and purposeless.

No cars passed, which he was grateful for in a sense, as someone rolling past

would have covered him in grey dust.

This meant, however, that there was no opportunity for him to hitch a ride into

town.

Near the half-way point, the road took a slight…

There is no misery akin to being dogged by a horsefly while working a plow,

behind a stinking mule,

in the adherent humidity of a morning in the Pee Dee.

So when the horsefly bit him on the…

Steve grunted when Gabby showed him the Arthur Murray Dance Studio coupon she clipped from the Sunday Courier and Enterprise.  “I think it would be fun, don’t you?” she said, warming up his coffee without him even having to ask, and dripping a little extra cream in it, too.  She thought of stirring it, but realized that would be suspiciously nice.  When the pancakes were ready, Gabby put Steve’s plate in front of him, and when she sat to join him, she put the coupon down on the table…

I mentored a girl when she was in the seventh grade, because she was a weak learner and had poor social skills, supplying her with things like school supplies and providing a few experiences for her like going to a swimming pool and attending summer camp.

We have stayed in touch through her unsuccessful single year of high school, her disastrous term at Job Corps, her years of couchsurfing with a network of relatives, her parent’s drug addiction, and her brother’s murder…

When every day is Saturday, you sleep in late for about a year and a half, and then your body is rested and you start to get up early and naturally.

Soon you realize you are free to be friendly with other people who are also aware that every day is Saturday.  Before you know it, they come to your house on a random Tuesday afternoon (which is really Saturday now) to play Spades, be loud, and eat Cheetos.

You are pleased to discover that you only need to take a shower if you are…