He was stuck in a crack, wedged tight between walls of rough basalt. His body blocked the only access or egress to the cave. Beyond the entrance crack, a squeeze passage burrowed further into the mountain. The passage was possible as a belly crawl, head turned sideways; a birthing canal carved from rock. Three body
Deputy Alan Eichmann watches Mills die on the hardwood floor behind the front desk. Dial-tone humming from the phone dangling above the young man’s body. The snub-nose .38 still warm in Alan’s hand. He lived and died at his post, such a good policeman, Alan thinks, turning his standard issue Model 27 on the two
Day One: The Girl woke up to find her legs tangled in Egyptian cotton and gooseflesh spread across her bare chest. She blinked twice. The Man paced up and down at the foot of the bed, his smart black trousers unbuttoned, his white dress shirt and credentials piled on the corner chair. He fiddled with
She had never seen a naked man before. She had glimpsed unclothed parts in isolation at the local pool, parties, the back seat of a car but never a fully assembled body, all parts only covered by skin and hair. Until that night, when she learned you never forget your first time. Spotting an opening
You could say that this a story within a story within a story. I am a novice writer so I shall tell my story as it comes to me, for I have limited resources; one leather-bound notebook, one pen and one bottle of ink that I have diluted but have maintained its consistency with urine
Phoning in sick wasn’t hard to do when you were being a phony. Not that I would have been categorized as a true imposter. I just gave excuses. Deceptively. Repeatedly. This time it was a chronic case of acid reflux. Last week it was food poisoning. As a columnist for the food section of the
We lost the window in our room today. It wasn’t transparent, only translucent. Even so, the light it filtered into our small white room evoked fantasies of a life outside. Mind you, the window didn’t look out on (or blur) any real outdoors; it just took light from the warehouse, which in turn took light
You know how it goes. You meet a girl, she’s great, she’s the one for sure. After a few years you move in together, a really cool flat right in the Çihangir area of Istanbul. A few more years pass, you’re having a great time. Then she starts talking about babies. The whole thing feels
Palu: Sulawesi July 12th. 2006 Early morning. I found the boy yesterday. Even now, still jet-lagged, listening to the seabirds chanting their raucous aubade as the tired tropical sun heaves its bulk out of the horizon – even now, I can hardly comprehend it. Perhaps his recollection was embellished by a desire to please,
She will present me with a thin sheaf of paper after hinting at its existence for days. She will read it over my shoulder until I tell her to stop, and while I read, she will watch my every move. Her smirk will tell me that, like all novices, she secretly thinks she’s produced a
