I'm in the habit of using humour as a shield against the world's ills, but at that moment I felt severely unfunny and uncomfortably serious. I was shaken. Maybe moving back wasn't such a bad idea, I thought to myself. I felt something in my pocket. I reached in. It was a call from the family ( Read more... )

When I come back late, I run from the elevator to the outer door of my apartment. I am not embarrassed to admit it. It's a dangerous neighbourhood and the floor is totally unused except for me. Who the fuck knows what bums there are in there? Especially behind those doors in the hall, I've heard sounds before in the night. I hardly ever sleep ( Read more... )

My apartment scares me a little, and probably for good reason. I'm the only person living on floor 6, since the walls and floors there are particularly craptastic. The structure seems to be warped with severe water damage. The walls have peeling yellow or blue paint. I'm not sure what is the over coat and which is the under, so I can't really ( Read more... )

To pay for my meagre rent, the amount of which is very low but none of your business thank you very much, I tutor Arabic. I know what I am doing as far as languages go. I speak more than 5 with smatterings of others. Compared to some other writing systems, the scribbles that the Arabic writing system uses are comparatively easy, it's not as hard ( Read more... )

Yes, I moved to the Bronx part of the city. Smooth! Anyway, I lived in an infested little sore of a neighborhood called Gun Hill. It's about half as charming as it sounds and probably twice as dangerous, though I have to say I am good at hiding in the shadows myself. After all I did come here to get lost. When I have to get up early, which is ( Read more... )

A lot of people run to the city to do something or be something. I wasn't one of them. I wasn't running to at all, I was running from and that makes a big difference. I was running from a small town and small minds, both perpetually buried in the clinical snows of Northern NY. Thinking back the thing I remember most about that place is the snow ( Read more... )

It is unfortunate that I have taken to the television series Lost and happened to begun reading Alive at the same time. Suddenly my life is filled with questions I never thought to ask. Do I know how to make paper? Where does electricity come from? Can fruit juice make a good ink? What is sunscreen ( Read more... )

Hello. I am doing a research paper about menstruation, and I am trying to gather facts about trends and feelings women and men have about menstruation. You are not obligated to answer every question ( Read more... )

      He is up at six in the morning. As he peers out from behind the blinds, he thanks God for giving him this day. It is overcast and not quite raining yet, and the dark clouds will leave no room for surprise for when the storm comes. The blinds cast an uneven, zebra striping across the room. It is a small room with yellowed paint, a skinny ( Read more... )

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