The letter was unreadable, save for the last few words. “Whatcha got there?” The baritone voice sounded god-like from on-high, coming from above the lip of the trench where Jessie Valdez was crouching, insulated from the construction noise. “Beats me,” he hollered over his shoulder and held his find up high, like an offering. “The […]

I was sitting around the kitchen table, nibbling on nachos. They were from a party the crew and I had three days ago. If you could image nachos as a bowl of leftover corn flakes, floating in a soup of stale milk that 48 hours ago could have been called cheese, and today called a […]

There is always something soothing to the sound of laundry on the line. It must be the muffled flapping of fabric, or the soft rustling when denim brushes against cotton. Maria looked out the kitchen window past the laundry and out into the rich green corn that literally stretched to the horizon. If she squinted […]

The fire truck rumbled and swayed as it snaked through the frozen traffic on its way to the latest emergency. It lurched headlong into a swirling envelope of smoke and steam with its sirens and clanging bells suffocating all other sound. Strapped safely within the cocoon of the cab sat Ben Anstett, poised to leap […]

Once upon a time there was a man named Rufus who lived alone. His only companion was his dog Scylla and the mice that lived in the pantry of his rickety old home. His grandfather built the house on the rocky hill overlooking the town. Over time the wind had loosened the planks allowing the […]

The sentence lay there leaden in the air as if it were an embarrassment that no one wanted to acknowledge.  The four people sitting around the table did not make eye contact and all that could be heard was the ever present din of commotion in the rest of the hospital. The grief counselor said […]