The child is six.
He is at home with his mother.
His mother sits in the bathroom, her eyes are red and swollen from crying.
Mama.
Stares.
Mama.
Sits, stares.
MAMA.
Her voice is dry from coughing and screaming into her knees, curled up in the bathtub, despondent.
She sounds far and away.
Baby, please. You have to stop calling Mama's name.
The apartment is ( Read more... )

Can I ask you something?
Yes. Of course you can.
What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you.
Okay.

- Cormac McCarthy

Scratch another mark in the “things I’ll never understand” column. Samuel Beckett. Contemporary Country music, as well as at least three other genres. Calling your potential employer after they make it a point to say they’ll call you. The parameters of social conduct. Morality. People who don’t use chapstick. People who dislike Robin ( Read more... )

Arthur was an independent child and his personality was such that he was deemed unpleasant by his fellow playmates. He was ambitious from an early age, and unlike so many others, had never learned to love the taste of corporate cum. He would do things his own way, and you’d like it. He and his mother shared an old two story home on a residential ( Read more... )

Melissa showed up at my doorstep with a broken jaw and bruises around her eyes. She hugged me and began to tell me what had happened. She said her father found out she had been lying to him about where she was going one night and fucking lost it. He threw her to the floor and began wailing on her. His clumsy body pinned her to the ground, ( Read more... )

Julian took her to the hilltop on a cold November night. The hill overlooked the city, there was never a sight so beautiful, never a sight so breathtaking. Elise is speechless until she croaks out a broken sigh and asks Julian if he’s ever seen anything so wonderful in his life. He flashes a smile and looks at her with a pure and humbling ( Read more... )

Kate moves her hand, her small, delicate, porcelain hand and gently palms his face, she uses her thumb to play with his lip ring, she leans in to kiss him. They are at a party. People around them are smoking, drinking, having what they believe is a good fucking time. Not one of them will remember any specifics from tonight the proceeding morning ( Read more... )

Aside from being a rabid alcoholic, Uncle Andy exhibited many obsessive-compulsive behaviors; all of which indicate he had OCD to a rather severe extent. Before taking a seat, Uncle Andy would demand to know who had sat in the chair before him. He would walk into the bar, his favorite bar, the Place Pigalle, and approach the assembly of stools. ( Read more... )

Everyday I convince myself of something more preposterous. Yeah, this will probably do me in. This will put the nail in the coffin, for sure. But then something else comes along, and knocks it right out of its place. Usually, the successors are uglier, and more vile, which is why they win and are able to take precedence. Worry and guilt, worry ( Read more... )

It's hard to be social, and it's not from lack of trying. I'm just no good at it. It's so goddamn easy to disconnect and keep to myself. I might get lonely, but I won't get hurt. Of course, there are no guarantees, are there ( Read more... )