It is the third time this week. Mattias can tell Rob is annoyed but he hasn’t done anything to solicit the attention. He is just the bar back at a popular spot. Bar Due Veh is well situated on a popular shopping stretch for chic and empowered women. Rob is a good-looking bartender with great skills and charm. He’s used to having numbers passed to him, but it’s as if the kid is casting Read more
It’s the only button on the handset that is fluorescent yellow. It’s an otherwise traditional wireless phone. But it is a special button. It’s a prototype designed by her cousin who shunned marriage and went to MIT instead. The button mutes the voice of the caller but is sensitive to silent gaps and inflections that may indicate a question has been asked. Maria has been secretly testing it on her mother-in-law for weeks. There is Read more
“Look, I know it’s no one’s fault, it’s the weather, but I just spent $50 on a cab so I wouldn’t be late for this flight y’all cancelled. Not your problem the fifty bucks, but I need to get on that next flight.” He’s leaning way over the counter invading the Air Canada’s rep personal space. I imagine his breath redolent of Jack or Jameson’s. Air Canada has just cancelled every other flight into their Eastern Read more
It was his favorite game the spring he turned five. Every Tuesday while his brother had tennis lessons, Sebastien and his mom played the Chalk Word game. Mariel grabbed the bucket of sidewalk chalk from the trunk and they tried to cover as much of the empty concrete wading pool as they could in the one hour lesson. Sebastien would draw an image and then she would write the word in bubble letters. After a Read more
This is why Trina never wanted kids. She cannot take the pressure. She cannot bear the responsibility of making sure she’s not unleashing another sociopath into the world. She doesn’t trust her genes: there are vikings and pirates and rumors of madness. Danny’s side boasts a long line of drunks. It kills her to imagine that there is anything remotely defective in her perfect angels, she loves them fiercely. But they terrify her. Every day Read more
The streets are slick with rain and a thousand yellow Maple buds paint the asphalt. I remember your ridiculous yellow slicker but I don’t remember the trees. It was always night when we roamed the streets. Your wallet chain jingled as we careened down the mostly silent sidewalks, our Doc Martins making hollow thuds. I used to watch my feet when I walked to make sure I didn’t step on any cracks. You thought that Read more
“Do you ever want to get married?” I put the question back to him. It’s a horrible habit answering a question with a question but he doesn’t call me on it. He doesn’t even know he missed an opportunity to call me on it. He is considering options, his face scrunched tight with concentration. Despite having posed the question first he’s never given it much thought regarding himself. It’s understandable because he’s nine. He’s very measured when Read more
Wednesday’s hump was sizable. I revised the About page on the blog. It is normally not a noteworthy endeavor but as happens when you avoid doing something, everything is that much weightier when you finally get around to it. I haven’t been inspired to make any notes from The Middle lately. It’s been more fun to stay in the made up worlds of creative writing. But Tuesday I noticed a lot of biographical details crept Read more