“I want something edgy,” says the client. Bloody hell. I’m a hairdresser not a miracle worker, thinks Pauline, running her hands over the bleached helmet of hair in front of her. “How do you mean?” Pauline asks, smiling professionally into… Continue Reading
The kiss was all wrong. Was it the timing? The form? We’d paired our mouths together numerous times, yet something wasn’t quite right here. My face contorts as I pull away from him. “What?” he asks as he studies my… Continue Reading
It’s the day Annie on Stakeholder Pensions retires after fifty years, having started on her fifteenth birthday. It’s a day that promises creamy cakes and cringy speeches, with Annie no doubt waiting until five-thirty before walking out for the final… Continue Reading
I mean, look at me. Jake Dakota. I’m 57. Broke. Jobless. Divorced. For the second time! Kids won’t speak to me, their minds poisoned by the exes. No health insurance. A shitcan car. Me! Voted most likely to succeed, but… Continue Reading
The preteen boys jiggled and swung on the platform, their bodies bumping against the guardrails. They don’t bother me. The ratatat-tat of the shatterproof glass by my seat window doesn’t bother me. A drunken man stumbles around, like a cripple,… Continue Reading
Gertie weathered the donkeys’ endless braying — sharp and grating across the pasture: A HORSE’S PLOW WE WON’T ALLOW Their voices cracked hollow, like imaginary whips against which they rebelled. “Ignorant jackasses,” Gertie muttered. “The field’s been fallow for weeks.”… Continue Reading
To so much as look at her, you knew: this girl was born to do one thing down here on God’s green earth and that one thing was to serve. Had that glimmer in her eyes, y’know? She’d go out-the-wire… Continue Reading
The car door thumps dully behind me, an underwater sound far from my ears. With shaking hands, I fish the manila envelope from my pocket and hold up the first photo from the pile. I’m seeing double as the signs… Continue Reading
Jennifer sits at the kitchen table, the sun hitting her dark brown hair and highlighting the pretty red undertones. Her face is drawn and pale and she stares down at the table as though her life is over. I want… Continue Reading
Buckley Harrison wished his baby sister had never been born. This was on his eighth birthday. Little Bella, a mere six months at the time, had ruined his party with her constant crying and screaming, and she then threw up… Continue Reading