he drives. because he always drives. he drives the car his mother bought him for christmas, two years ago. i know the way that he drives as well as i know the roads behind my childhood home. the winding, long winded roads built for speed and sad songs that play on loop. the roads that…

Fashion Fair, the new indoor mall in Fresno, devours the fig, walnut, and orange orchards.  Transforms the outdoor downtown mall into an abandoned geometry of shuttered storefronts, splintered benches, silent sculptures and fountains: the bronze Dancing Waters, Rite of the Crane, Talos, Three Fires. Good-bye glistening water, spouting water, flow-through-your-weary-day water. Tara has spent many…

The jobs grew stranger, but the work was not hard. A week ago, Orla followed the address on a torn strip of ivory paper to a music hall near the Cosmopolitan. She paused at the ladies’ entrance of the new hotel to admire the dresses, whose slim sleeves piped from puffed shoulders. The women and…

What if the sun falls from the sky? What if it drips fire down down down and lands in North Carolina? What if you and Tammy switch clothes and pretend to be each other? What if Dad dies in a car crash on the way to Greensboro? What if the babysitter doesn’t make a comment…

“I just don’t know if I can continue in this relationship if you keep acting this way,” I told Janet.  “When you really love someone,” she said, echoing our therapist, “you have to make sacrifices and accept them for who they are, warts and all.” We were lying in bed, talking in the same circles…

Lucy shows the signs.  Her mother hovers. “Lucy? Lucy? Are you listening to me?”  She raises a vague gaze to her mom. Lately, Lucy holds most things that make their way to her (homework assignment, detention slip, boyfriend) in a similarly vague fashion—lightly, poised to let them go. Finding them in her possession, she murmurs…

“You’re a corn stalk in a field of soybeans,” he says. This, from a most vulnerable position, down on one knee, peering up at the cheer captain. In his open palm he’s holding a Ring Pop. It’s still in the packaging. “Ew,” she replies, with a sideways glance. By now a small end-of-the-day crowd has…

My mother always says, “A little water never hurt anyone.” She means, don’t worry if you get caught in the rain. You’re not made of sugar. You won’t melt. She means, don’t worry if you knock over your water glass at that fancy restaurant on your second date, and the glass breaks and soaks the…

A-Side: “Can’t Feel My Face” – The Weeknd – Beauty Behind the Madness

I got in the car with the girls after the ceremony. They were as talkative as ever; Stephanie may have been more talkative than usual. I told myself it was a defense mechanism—that it helped them cope with the loss or made them feel like they had some level of control, even if it was…

The apartment wakes him with gentle cheer. The shower washes him, the closet dresses him, the kitchen has his breakfast ready on the counter when he walks out. Scrambled egg whites, a slice of whole wheat toast and a single link of sausage. He compliments the apartment on the spread. The apartment accepts the compliment…

At the interview, you’re fixated on the manager’s eyebrows, which look like gerbils hanging on his face. The eyebrows seem animated as if they might do flips or wave their little paws. You expend a lot of energy and concentration on not looking at his eyebrows yet still looking into his eyes. This explains why,…