She settles into her chair across from me, pulling her legs up in a sukhasana, and smiles. Do you mind? she asks. Of course not, I say. Sitting this way is more comfortable. Would you like a cup of coffee? I would love a cup of coffee, […]
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Cross-legged on the dirt floor, the conjurer, Juan Carlos, begins the death song, the death rattle painted the colors of the desert in his left hand, the owl’s claw in his right. The dance of flames throws shadows on the walls of the adobe hut, the smoke […]
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Brix Ransom, a tall twist of rawhide, stood sipping his beer at the bar next to Dumphy, the trail boss for the Triple X Cattle Company. I’m headed out in the morning, need to collect my pay. I won’t have it tomorrow, Dumphy told him. Why? The […]
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Santiago is thought to be the best fisherman in the village of Vizcuan because he brings the most fish to market. There are few days out of the year when Santiago doesn’t have fish to sell. Even though he is old and tired, he fishes every day. […]
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On a cold gray November day, he felt trapped inside his small apartment. He walked to the windows that overlooked Steele Street. Down below, an occasional car passed by slushing wet snow onto the empty sidewalk. The wet snow kept people inside. He had homework but didn’t […]
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Things should stay wild. Ples believed this even while he made plans to run another band of wild horses. He couldn’t help himself, they were wild and so was he. Even when he knew they had a slim chance of surviving after they’d been captured, he couldn’t […]
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Four-thirty a.m. They yell at each other from across the street, their voices echoing through the emptiness. Are you just going to walk away from me? After all this? What do you want from me? I want you to come here. Why? Because I need you. I’m […]
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The therapist, Dr. Blankenship, continued to stare down at the writing pad in his lap when she told him she had grown weary, and not only weary but bored with life. “Yes, that’s it, I’m bored,” Elise said. “And you think that by ending your life you […]
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On the surface, John Lancer seemed calm but underneath a fiery caldera simmered, ready to erupt at the first disturbance. He wasn’t a man you wanted to piss off. But Manny Morningstar was too bent on self-destruction, took too many chances, believed too much in his own […]
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The Kid stood up and with long strides and the clink of spurs on the hardwood floor strode over and placed his mug in the bin of breakfast dishes. Reston watched him slip into the oilskin he took from the coatrack next to the side door and […]
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