The Diner
“Why can’t she leave Mars Prime?” “She can’t leave her apartment, is closer to the truth. We all—every troubleshooter who was working at the time—gave up some of our karma to build the place.” Epiphany sipped…
Epiphany
“I need a body.” The abbot drew on his cigarette, exhaled a cloud of soma, and flicked the butt off of the cloud island. It turned into a shimmering golden butterfly on its way down and…
Gnat Slayer
Five quarter-turns of the hot knob and one of the cold always rendered the correct temperature. There was no need to do a quick test with the hand, so his chest made first contact with the…
You Bug Me
Nobody understands pop music. Even the artists, labels, publishers, radio execs, ASCAP, BMI, they don’t know what makes a hit. Or else they’d do it over and over. Duh! It’s like: “Great song.” “Here’s another just…
Tia
“This is a nice surprise.” “No, it isn’t.” The woman looked to be about thirty. She was tall and athletic, with skin the color of old bronze and long dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail. Her…
This Is A Wonderful Town With Generous Doctors and Pharmacists
I live in one of those rare towns with a generous pharmacist whose arm you do not need to twist to sell you pain pills without a prescription. My pharmacist’s name is Michael Hallberg, but everyone…
The Junkyard
The dog made it to the bottom of the scrap pile first. The man slid down after, picking a careful path with his flashlight through the stacks of discarded luggage and old toys. There was a…
Two Years Later
It was early fall in the misty hills. The morning air was crisp. The little girl ran for the joy of running, up from her father’s house to the temple at the mountain peak. She leapt…
Buen Día
When I first met Stan in Father Derrida’s Bookshop I thought he was a hobo. He was drunk and rambling about the president, but he wasn’t getting carried away and so I moved closer, and the…
Why-to actually Have (as in give Birth to) a Child
*why-to: a short and helpful guide to motivate one’s pursuit of activities either a.) previously not pursued or b.) pursued so regularly that no one knows or remembers why they’re doing them in the first place. Why-to…
Do they still love Trump in Bedrock?
If there is a place truly emblematic of the white working class towns and small Rust Belt cities that put Donald Trump in the White House, it has to be Bedrock. The town was once so…
Where We Sit
We got here late and it was very crowded. It will be hard for anyone to remember us in the church, listening to the Christmas music and the priest. Where we sit, a priest is not…
SIPs at the Table
The man sat at the kitchen table, ignored by the child. The boy sat on the other end, his feet planted on the kitchen laminate with his eyes and most of his face obscured by the…
Cast—Part 3
As the car approached her house, Kane remembered that Harry had set all this in motion, had funded this fact-finding mission, and there’d been an unexpected result. She did not know how she would ever tell…
Cast—Part 2
Kane watched, too, as the world pulled away from Harry and left him behind. Then she turned toward what was ahead. She liked Harry: he had not been nearly as bad as she had expected, meaning…
Cast—Part 1
So many lights were going off that they looked like explosions, with everybody blown to bits. The image was appropriate, Harry thought, because aspects of Ulmer were being flung to photographers like meat to pigs, chum…
Lucien Murdock
I’ve always liked night markets. Something about the hustle-bustle of people doing business under the stars appeals to me. This one was situated in the ruins of a Greek temple on top of a mesa on…