42 Minutes

The sack of mangosteen falls to the ground and a fruit rolls out. Farel slams it with a rock and scoops out the rind, more sweet than oranges. Sweating on the ground, under the shade of trees in the noontime sun. Evergreens bend with more fruit. Next to him, a broad leaf. He moves it…

Ever-Burn

            At 3 am in the morning, there is a knock on Benny’s door. It interrupts a dream of silk mountains, and he sliding down them on a plastic food tray. He’s snacking on a cucumber.             He wakes up. “I hate cucumber!”             He peers through the eye-hole, and opens the door. On the…

The Big Game

            Jin-Soo taps an apple with the golf club. It flies over the sidewalk and onto the lawn, rolls for a bit, disappears into a hole. He shuffles backwards a step, takes aim at another apple, and swings. It vanishes too.             The sidewalk is getting cleaner, he thinks. Above him, a crab apple tree…

The Day You Jump

T-minus 3 days.             But I suck at math, so let me back up. You’re surprised? Shouldn’t be. T-minus 5 days.             There we go. In the hallway with Annette Benig’s twin sister. No kidding.             She’s leans in. “You’ve got to be kidding.”             I want to suck on her nose. “Nope,” I tell…

The Proper Way to Live

                A pressing, distressing narrative this is not. It’s 1570 Spain, and I’m a missionary building a church in the middle of the forest. It’s 1960 southern United States and I’m a policeman shining the beam on a tree, and its leaves, as the sky shines bright with stars and people sing in the distance,…

Hours After You

                You didn’t clean up before you got in the car and drove away. But I did. I stayed. You didn’t call when you got to the bar, and didn’t save me a seat, even though I asked if you could. I called, and you didn’t pick up. I sat in the kitchen and ate…