If He Were the Mayor We’d Know

If He Were the Mayor We’d Know

Father’s job is very important, we think. “I think he is a builder,” says Brother. “I think he is the mayor,” says Sister. “If he were the mayor we’d know,” I say. We chirp at Father every day when he returns home from work, snake-faced and limping, victim of his...
How to Be Alone in Florida

How to Be Alone in Florida

    Back and forth, the waves sloshed in a steady rhythm–a calming musical accompaniment to the day. The young man took unhurried strides toward the ocean; with each step, fine mounds of sand, hot and soothing, swept between his toes and spilled from...
Blurry Vision

Blurry Vision

  She said she had seen a ghost, or a blurry vision, as she called it, behind our bedroom mirror. I reluctantly climbed the stairs to investigate (I had never considered myself brave, but a husband’s duty is at times to falsify himself in the eyes of his wife)....
Vespers

Vespers

  I’m not sure what it is about this place that cinches my gut shut whenever I’m here. Maybe it’s the history. 1906, Loma Prieta, the Oakland Hills—even the whole dot-com business. Something about it just always seems perched on the verge of catastrophe, as if...
The First Boyfriend

The First Boyfriend

    Before time began, somebody must have told the first boyfriend he looked good in a tank top. On the first date, the first boyfriend took Dean to the bowling alley on the edge of town. He reached over Dean to the glove compartment and offered Dean his...
The Scientist

The Scientist

    With a trembling smile, the scientist sat facing her beakers and test-tubes. She had long ago turned her bedroom into a chemistry lab and surrounding her was a deranged rainbow—hundreds of chemicals that mixed in the right proportions could spew forth...