"But, Lise, you promised you'd go to the Christmas party with me." "Darrel, that was before we broke up," I said. "I told everyone a month ago you'd be coming." "You should have found another date." "I haven't been well." Darrel sniffled. "Besides, you know I miss...
She has penny-red hair, my Tina, and freckles spilling tan confetti over milk-white skin. She is big-boned, thick, meaty, and muscular; it makes me want to bite her. And when I press my face into her neck, she smells like "Lucky Rabbit" candy; I salivate like a...
I don't realise I have dozed until one of them moves. It's Nathan under my arm, my arm across his shoulders, Nathan up beside me on the pillows. His eyes are closed, sleeping, so I think, in his sleep nuzzling my side just below my breast, with his lips. It's a cosy...
My eyeballs were so hot with rage that I saw the two women through a red blur. "I need my fucking money today, Tara!" I yelled. "You said you'd have it." I was angrier at myself than at her. My own gullibility felt as unbearable as scratchy woollen underwear. "Chill...
"My head hurts," whined Aryeh miserably, tugging his carefully ringletted side locks straight and furrowing his pale brow. The candlelight turned his clear, bright features into golden planes and shadows. "Stop pulling your peyos! We've almost finished the chapter on...
Sideburns; what makes a man grow sideburns? Does he look in the mirror one morning and think; "Hmmm despite the sloping brow and the eye ridges I don't quite look Cro-Magnon enough. What I need is redundant facial hair that will lower my perceived IQ and give my...
In the lulling hours of late afternoon, when my sons are with their tutor and my husband is at his office, I usually take tea and sit with my daughter watching the birds along the lakeshore, but not today. Today, my daughter is dancing with other well-groomed girls at...
Life changes. Dicky Norvaks still goes to the city park at least twice a day, but now he takes Rex for his walk around the big preserve on the edge of town. Years ago Dicky was the animal that prowled through the tall grass, sniffing around the wild brush, skulking...
It was the same stupid dream. Jessica took her usual seat on the bus, enduring their stares, gasps and titters. But this time it would be different. This time Jessica would take control of her dream. After all the money she spent on those sessions with Dr. Kraiterman,...
"I wonder if it's male or female?" Joe Rose studied the alien sitting at the end of the bar, trying to decide on an answer to his question. There were maybe a hundred different species that came through the Staten Island transshipping station where he worked, and Joe...