A Deal

A Deal

    I got the results from the paternity test and an offer for a new job on the same day. The paternity test was positive; I was the father. The new job was cutting meat at Chives, a specialty grocery store in Boulder. On my lunch break I texted my twin...
The Monkey and the Girl

The Monkey and the Girl

  Winnie’s 350-square foot studio that she called home resembled a submarine, she liked to say to strangers, to offer them a quick image of what it was like to live in small spaces. A submarine was dark and hollow, challenged by gravity. Her apartment was on the...
Ritual

Ritual

    We passed the grave each time we drove to the Mexican restaurant. “Lit up like a goddamn carnival,” my father said, cloudy with gin. Always that rotgut citrus smell, forest waste or watered-down cleaner, blatant as assault. “Hush, you,” mother said,...
Stuck to the Safety

Stuck to the Safety

    Your father is lying on the couch under a quilt with an Apsáalooke print on it. He tells you, I’m sorry I can’t go, this thing is killing me. And you nod your head that folds your high-necked sweater down because it is old and has been worn and washed...
Spartanburg

Spartanburg

  Clara Jayne liked secrets. For example: 1. She liked sliding onto the wet spot after sex with Richard, her husband. 2. She didn’t want to have a child with Richard, or anybody. 3. She didn’t mind he’d gained twenty pounds since the marriage, though he didn’t...
Porcelain

Porcelain

    I once heard in NPR about a guy in Brooklyn who had a rat appear in his toilet. Apparently it climbed up the pipes and when the man walked in, there it was, looking up at him. No. In this story, the guy first lifted the lid of the toilet. I don’t know if...