The first time Tammy ever wore make up was in forth grade. Naturally, I was curious. When I asked her, she said she was trying something new. She wanted to look like a grown-up. I believed her. After all, I was trying to convince my parents to let me get contacts because I thought it would get me to look more adult ( Read more... )

It smells like shit, literally. I want to light up a cigarette just to put some other smell in my nose. I want to smoke because I’m stressed and I can’t exactly go and get a drink ( Read more... )

They come from everywhere; travelers of all stripes. The rich and affluent, going to a second home or doing some tourist slumming, and migrants, looking for a better life. Seasonal nomads, following their migratory patterns, so ingrained the trip is no longer novel, and wild gypsy souls, forever on the road to their Kashmirs, but perhaps their ( Read more... )

Bright, bright, almost emerald green, underscored by the sprawling tendrils of relentless kudzu and the sensation of perpetual rot. Humidity, the kind that gives the air weight, the type, which would make you suggest it lay off the late-night Twinkies. Even on a clear day, the sky seems murky. The brilliant blue I got used to where I’ve been living ( Read more... )

I was somewhere between ten and twelve when I sat, transfixed to the point of paralysis, watching my first full sunset. It's been so long ago, I no longer recall my exact age at the time or the date on the calendar. I do know it was summer, but after that, the details are a little fuzzy. With the fluid and phantasmal nature of time I observe, I ( Read more... )

This was initially done as a guest post for someone I know through Blogger under the theme of studying...

We first met as adolescents in a souk, at southeastern edge of the greater metroplex, attempting to earn a wage without our parents' help or hindrance. I was nineteen, nearly twenty, collecting and counting money for purchases. She was not too ( Read more... )

The phone rings with a sense of urgency that can only come from getting a call shortly after dawn. I all but jump out of bed, disoriented and terrified. Carmen, lying naked next to me, barely stirs, of which I am grateful as I grab my phone to see who’d be calling me at this hour. The screen is blurry, and I fumble for my glasses ( Read more... )

After the shots and the beginnings of a fresh beer I find myself in that happy warm place right before the buzz kicks in and things can get either interesting or pear-shaped. A few other mutual acquaintances have happened by, and Hobbs has been more than happy to snatch them away to the bar for shots, all in the name of catching up, leaving me to ( Read more... )

I just get past the door girl at Juke when there was scream from an electric slide guitar that sends a chill down my spine and ignites a sensation of excitement in belly, of which would cause the Evangelicals back home to wave their Bibles and preach fire and brimstone of the evil inherent in the Devil’s Music. Those doomsday voices in my head are ( Read more... )