This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes
bySOMETHING BAD HAS HAPPENED IN THE FAMILY. Sylvia knows this because Mom is on the phone, whispering things in Spanish like “como puede ser?” (how can this be?) and “hermanita”…
SOMETHING BAD HAS HAPPENED IN THE FAMILY. Sylvia knows this because Mom is on the phone, whispering things in Spanish like “como puede ser?” (how can this be?) and “hermanita”…
ROSCOE LIVES ALONE WITH THIRTY-FIVE DOGS. He finds them easy to take care of, even though he’s seventy and slowing down. The dogs require little but that he calls out…
I THINK OF THE PHARENG EVERY DAY. I think of his white skin and his cheeks that would turn something between pink and red whenever Mei-Duh lit the third fire. I…
“NO ONE DRINKS CHAMPAGNE FROM WOMEN’S SHOES ANYMORE,” Dean said as he watched the foam dissipate from the head of his beer. Marcus lifted a bowl of peanuts and wiped…
MY MOM USE TO WALK TO THE DAIRY QUEEN. She’d do that two or three times a week. It was about a mile away. A little more. She would always…
THEY WOKE ME IN THE NIGHT BY GRINDING THEIR TEETH NEXT TO MY EARS. Their thin torsos stretched onto the walls and ceiling in black silhouettes as if they were…
AFTER THE FIRE, BERTHA AND I MOVED INTO THE GROUNDKEEPER’S COTTAGE AT THE GARDEN’S EDGE. Thornfield Hall itself is little more than a blackened ruin, particularly the upper floors. However,…
OMAR EXPLAINS TO ME THAT MEXICAN WRESTLERS NEVER REMOVE THEIR MASKS IN PUBLIC. “Who they are in the ring is the same person they are outside,” he says. “So The…
I COLLECT MY SCARLET LETTERS WITH EACH JAZZ MUSICIAN I’VE FUCKED. Nobody else counts. I understand it’s limiting to typecast a subgenre of people. Even morally wrong. But other types…
YOU ARE ELEVEN. You are wearing your prep school’s red uniform polo shirt and a khaki skirt. Your mom took you to the Red Door Salon inside Sak’s Fifth Avenue…