At 7 am on a Friday, Ellie stood outside her apartment dressed like Joan of Arc. From her window upstairs the street had looked sunny and...

Way back in Tommy Tutone's childhood Chicago, the word on the street is that Tommy was conceived under a dead hickory tree, on top of a...

The Walther P22 in Carl Peltier’s glove compartment isn’t the same gun his father used. That was the P38, heavier by a pound and forever...

When I originally wrote this story and sent it to a magazine I thought might be interested, I got it back with the note they rejected it...

Eddie says things must change between us, that they can’t be as before. “Because I’m not here anymore, not really.” He has tried to...

They started with Ravel’s Bolero. Instead of the snare drum with a quiet heartbeat tap, the concert took off with a bang. Sure, before...

“Two cents.” Sarah looked up in surprised. “Oh, nothing. I wasn’t thinking anything.” Emma raised an eyebrow. “Really? Is that why you...

People die every day. That’s what I kept telling myself anyway—anything to explain why we put Lisa in the ground this morning, why a...

The crop duster was named for his mother’s ornery great uncle, Hawthorne Eustis Middleton. Young Hawthorne never took to it. When he was...

CW/TW: Historical racism In memory of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (AKA Lyons Wakeman) (1843-1864), who died in hospital while serving with the...

I Today I intend to document how the middle-aged, physically fit and balding Tully Lieberman lived in a house on the very edge of the...

When she emerged from the elevator, he was surprised to see that she was alone. Usually, she was with her husband, on the way to a book...

I’ve got the number on Lou. I can tell you his routine, his habits, how and when he laughs and who he spends his time with (no one) and...

Walking through Melinda’s apartment, Alice decided the bathroom would be the best place to hold a private conversation. The apartment...

Joe walks past the grey-painted cinder block walls and numbered steel doors to introduce himself. The young corrections officer staring...

“Ugh.” I don’t know what woke me up just now, but my head feels like there’s an overweight clown with leaden boots performing cartwheels...

I try to stay away from maddening people, better than I used to be at spotting them, but Alejandra called after her accident. “Bad enough...

I was lucky to survive sixth grade. It was the same year the Plaza de Toros Monumental was demolished just across the border. It was a...

I sat in my six-month-old, three-quarter-ton pickup with the air on and watched as streams of people came and went from the single-story,...

Madeleine cradled my ankles in her arm pits, my body bent into a crescent, legs long and oiled, feet bare in the customs of Smoke City...