Prayers didn’t stop earthquakes. They didn’t stop evil landlords or toothaches, but Hartley prayed anyway because it couldn’t hurt anything and mainly because it was free. What he prayed for was a little outrageous. First, he prayed that his boss, Kiplinger would stop making his …
I was watching Dexie hold his breath underwater, pretending to time him, when I spotted an old friend standing in the shallow end, nursing a drink. I made my way over. “Fuzzy F,” I said. “I thought that was you.” “That’s Dr. Fuzzy F to …
Bad things happen in these mountains. Patient, enduring, these mountains sit in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert, where a sinuous Rio Grande River works its way south dividing Texas from Mexico. Here the country is dry, dusty, and hostile. The arms of the Ocotillo …
You’re on a middle seat, thirty thousand feet up in the sky. It’s too late to go back, obviously, but that’s all you can think of. Being back on campus, in your room that you share with a girl on a varsity scholarship, whose eyes …
“How much?” I asked. “30 rupees,” he said, as he passed two steaming Styrofoam cups of coffee through the car window. He looked distracted, looking over his shoulder. I sipped my coffee and passed on the other to my partner. It was boiling hot, as …
Today I became November. The vote was five to four with one abstention; January always abstains. For no requirement forces his lack of action in voting; only custom. January rules by custom. Today was no different. A few of my predecessors campaigned for and against …
P.J. Combs was being stalked by a very determined speedboat. He didn’t like it one bit. Anyone close enough to P.J. could see the beads of sweat glisten on his forehead as he hurried across the sidewalk. But no one could miss the small floating …
Once up on a time in the kingdom of Kwan lived a secluded order of monks know as The Secluded Order of Monks. They lived out their days in a remote monastery high up in the mountains where they played chess with the local Yeti …
Mr. Drake sat on a lone bench facing the east river—the same bench on which he always read his books, smoked his cigarettes, and watched the boats pass. Mr. Drake spent the first half of his lunch hour at a café, where he would order …
There’s a myth recalling an old man with dark skin and thin, white hair, who was good and wise in his day and only got wiser, got so wise he started having visions in his dreams. One night he dreamt chaos, dreamt the birth …