Kamp tried the first few doors, but all the knobs were stuck, or they were locked from the other side. Either one could have been possible ( Read more... )

It was Halloween night, almost midnight, actually. There were still people everywhere. Some neighborhoods might have called it quits hours ago, but it was still young here tonight. The cable television had been out all week. Since there was nothing to do at home, I took walks all up and down the streets and in backyards and alleys and cold empty ( Read more... )

The last thing I saw before drifting off was the faded green wall opposite the window side of my bedroom, right over the desk. My body remained alive for a few minutes more, but as for me I was out just as well as a dead light switch; repair could be on the way, but there’s only so much time you can let an accident sit before the injury becomes ( Read more... )

I.Most hot August mornings started out with somebody’s hen crowing into the city, waking up the dead ( Read more... )

The rich kids in class were always talking the loudest. Even when the teacher was in the middle of explaining what a paradigm was. You would think that always having everything they ever wanted would sort of make the rich kids bored of everything; even talking. But that really wasn’t so, I guess. Maybe the hot new cars they could afford were always ( Read more... )

It was probably just a solemn miracle, but in a lot of ways caring about the specifics of that was entirely besides the purpose. I’ve always considered anticipation that won’t leave my head a precursor to a horrifying accident. It just so happens that I’ve had this feeling so many dozens of times-leading mostly all to memorial darkness after ( Read more... )

Rushing past dense dark foliage with sickly black-barked wooden towers that dripped dirt and grime and the rain falling, I almost fell into a dip that would surely have left me for Paice to find and-with unknown cruelty-conquer. But he wouldn’t get me this time. Today was my day ( Read more... )

Whatever you can do to stop all the screaming.

School let out early again because we had two bomb threats. There were two the day before that as well, which resulted in the same makeshift early day not a kid in town didn’t holler and hoot for. I rode home thinking to myself that it was so strange how procedure worked: Everyone knew the calls were a hoax, but by law you can’t have children in a ( Read more... )

I took a look down at my slacks and they were pressed. The dress shoes looked like I’d picked them off the shelf at Garsonboles. Before I stepped away from the mirror, an olive colored shirt with a light tweed jacket, split down the middle with a tie from Panda Kayson (the most elegant of the Kayson lines). Elmore snipped my hair yesterday, so it ( Read more... )