So Miss Stoodley, our English teacher, gives us this really dumb assignment. Take a notebook she says, pick a spot in town, and write a list of ten things that happen while you’re there. Who’s she kidding? Nothing ever happens in New Hope. I mean how can it? We’ve only got the Shurfine Supermarket, Kelly’s […]
Then things happened all at once. It was Sunday afternoon when everybody should be taking things easy. The boy wasn’t. I saw him take off with a look on his face that sure gave me a bad feeling. He was headed for Hank’s place and he didn’t look like he was going acourtin’. The buggy […]
The old preacher frightened me. His legs stomped the plywood stage at the front of Granny’s church like medieval battle rams, pure force of will bolstered by ages of men just like him, born up from pine woods and the open valleys shadowed by the Smoky Mountains where they found God and signs of God […]
A few days later, I’d checked on Clem and was walking from his house through the back of the hardware store. I overheard a strange voice talking to the boy. “Ya gotta stake me. I ain’t got money at all. Don’t forget I can tell everybody who you are and why you’re here.” The boy […]
Los Olivos, California, 1882 The road was muddy as usual in the late Spring with a hint of more rain in the evening’s darkness. The trees still held drops from the last downpour and shook them off when the wind blew. My open buggy was no protection as my sodden trousers and jacket proved. Betsy, […]
It was noon. We pulled up. We pulled ugly beautiful shiny black guns out. We pulled on masks. Except driver boy Tommy who could use one full time with his ugly Irish freckles. We scanned Sheriff Street. No sheriffs. No Gardai. No nosey parkers. Tommy Freckles watched me in the rear view mirror. Have fun […]
-Anyway, what can I say? She ended up transferring the next semester. Bates or Hobart, I think. … -What? -I can’t believe you just told me that. -C’mon, it’s no big deal. I mean, who cares now right? … … … -Jesus, man, will you stop it with the pinched face? You want another drink? […]
The shallow riverbed spread twelve feet wide on her left side and the jagged cliffs of the ravine rose sharply to her right. The bottom of her boots slipped across wet river stones as she waded through the water. It was hot out. The sides of the gorge were coated in a red dust that […]
The air smells of blood and burnt flesh. The woman is sprawled across a frayed Oriental carpet with a gunshot wound in her neck. Her hair is wispy from too many dye-jobs. She is wearing a man’s shirt and sequinned blue bikini bottoms. Underneath it looks like her public hair has been trimmed into a […]
The sound came first, reverberated in his head, echoing from the top of his skull; a sound like grinding a cigarette butt on a gravel path. Then the hurting started, a fiery arrow penetrating his eyes, setting his brain on fire. Marcus had lost count how many times he had been punched in the nose […]
You never know what’ll go through your mind in a clusterfuck of violence and degradation, but as Jess assessed the flesh, blood and cartilage in her mouth, she thought it tasted of dirty pennies, uncooked bacon and salt. She spat the glob across the room and her mind snapped to more pressing matters. Primarily how […]
Mackay threw Andrew over the saddle of John Hardy’s horse and led them both up to the jail on Front Street at the edge of town. Dover Plains was a prosperous town by Montana standards. Lumber, mining, farming and ranching thrived all around it, so the town had the resources to build a solid jail […]
