The woman’s screaming, carrying on something fierce. Her boy ain’t saying nothing, just sitting there with his mouth open. His eyes wide. Throws his hands over his face. Ducks under the table. But the woman — the fat man’s wife — she’s having a conniption. She got the most of it. The fat man’s blood. […]
Graham flipped up his collar and adjusted his hat as the wind blew through the last straggling trees before the timberline. It was October, and winter could come hard and fast in the high country. Did the wind smell like snow? Maybe the chestnut gelding knew, but he wasn’t telling Graham. Graham had taken the […]
“Okay, so this is an interesting phenomenon, you pushing in my door and jabbing a gun in my stomach. Statistically, this is a safe neighborhood, and the likelihood of my being hurt in a burglary attempt is significantly less than the chance that I will be hurt in a traditional household mishap such as falling […]
Las Vegas burned in my rearview mirror. The last flames of a dying sun setting fire to the haze of dust hanging in the hot, still air above the city. The Strip clawed at the darkening sky, its concrete arms inked with glass and neon; reaching up like a drowning man, searching for the hand […]
“Cap’n,…Cap’n,… where‘d they go?” “Shut up, an keep watchin,” barked Captain Titus Barnes as he crouched behind a dead horse, looking around nervously over the grassy plain below. “They’re out there, in the grass, waiting, watching.” “Don’t see ‘em,” said 19 year old recruit, Private Archer as he rose to a stranding position to look […]
When Rodney found the tiny bones scattered on the concrete slab that was his front porch, he assumed they were from a small animal, like a raccoon or a squirrel. In time, he learned that he was wrong. When the long shadows passed over the back yard, and a gust of cool wind caused the […]
It was past 3 am. A full moon in the Eastern sky was obscured by fast rolling dark clouds. When I came in the house the boy lay sleeping on the rough blanket, his hands clenched. Max walked in behind me and stood at my side. The contours of the high dresser and other objects […]
The sun had become the old man’s worst enemy. It beat against him without any remorse, lashes of heat hitting his back and sending painful jolts up his shoulders. Reaching into his coat pocket he took out a handkerchief and wiped it across his forehead. The barren plains of the desert hadn’t changed much ever […]
Mike Grabow lived in the kind of neighborhood where some houses sported Christmas lights strung like cheerful beacons that never came down. But from busted appliances littering front yards to dead automobiles that leaked oil and other fluids onto soiled driveways, it wouldn’t appear that there was ever much to celebrate. Grabow was drinking hard […]
Dust flows in through the open tailgate window. “Your Cheatin’ Heart” blares from the dash. Some think Hank will be a star. I know he will. He speaks my language. My temperature gauge is pegged as I spot the shape of a Texaco sign on the horizon. I push the shift lever up to neutral. […]
Every Thanksgiving the Star-Ledger runs a calendar of community theater holiday shows. There must be a dozen Handel’s Messiah sing-a-longs, just as many versions of The Nutcracker, plus the undisputed champ of holiday tearjerkers, A Christmas Carol. These are the kind of shows that the whole family attends and in my line of work this […]
Christmas time always sets me to thinking about Boston and the house I had grew up in. I stood in the doorway of my cabin and looked out at the snow that had already lain on the mountain. It reflected the sun and made for a bright morning. The pine trees made me think of […]
