grab and go
Dylan's forehead rests against the backseat window. His lips move in pattern--whispers over the thumps of the road--in chorus to whatever he’s blasting through those silly, two-hundred-dollar headphones that make him look like he should be holding glow sticks, taxiing planes at O’hare. He’d begged Jill to buy the goofy things and I’d laughed when... Continue Reading →
Alecia gripped my arm, just above the elbow, nails digging. I thought she was going to rip through my shirt. “Mom, Dad. This is Justin.” “Hi Justin.” Her father bolted across the room with a board meeting smile. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” Luckily, I'd been prepped for his vice-grip handshake. I braced myself,... Continue Reading →
Julie has really stuck to her New Years’ resolution. She’s doing aerobics at the Y. Hip hop dance things. I wake up predawn sometimes, find her in the living room, grunting and squatting and lunging to the commands of instructional YouTube videos promising a bigger booty. She looks incredible. All the hard work is paying... Continue Reading →
The SNW-2000 virus hit hard and without warning. The virus crippled infrastructure, baffled experts and anti-malware systems with its speed and efficiency. At first thought to be a DDoS virus, it quickly moved through smartphones, to WIFI speaker systems like the Echo and HomePod, before compromising servers, homeland security protocols, and crashing networks worldwide. The... Continue Reading →
I was up late—Johnny Carson late. Mom and her new friends were in the kitchen, where they’d spent the evening making jolly, singing and laughing and carrying on well past dinner. Every once in a while she’d pop her head around the corner, the phone cord stretching as she reminded Angie and me that Santa... Continue Reading →
Gary arrived two minutes early for his interview and took the only seat available in the stuffy warm lobby at Vita-Life Insurance. His nose twitched and his eyes watered. He only half turned to the lady seated next to him but it was enough. She was a cat lady. Gary could smell it on her... Continue Reading →
Newton Figg’s rise to political prominence was something of a head scratcher, even in a country with the most head-scratching electoral process on the globe. From competitive eating champion to Moose Lodge officer, the feisty Figg had parlayed his local legend to become a state senator by the time he was a round and robust... Continue Reading →
We were on the side patio. The sun fighting with the passing clouds. I’d just set the burgers on the grill as Lani and Heather sat with the kids, in the thick of negotiations over the usage of the Radio Flyer. I kept glancing back, smiling, at Heather’s kids, with my kids. Still hard to... Continue Reading →
How did I not see it coming? This is Dad I'm talking about, the same guy who blasts a search light into the sky from our backyard every Saturday night to let me know curfew was up. Like I was Batman. It was his fault I had no friends. A boyfriend? Forget it. Being the daughter of a... Continue Reading →
I have never done anything unpredictable. But that changed today when I woke up, packed a bag, went to the airport and randomly bought a ticket to Los Angeles. Gary thought it was perfectly predictable. He called it a textbook case of escapism. But that’s Gary for you, he predicted all my behavior patterns. Like... Continue Reading →
Lunch Break Fiction 