I’ve been reveling in things I’m not supposed to. Twirling Q-tips deep into my ear canals. Eating food that sits out overnight. Digging little ruptures in my skin. Staying awake…
So I still watch those old FOX-11 Gangland Specials on my VCR. Yes, I taped them. No, it’s not a big deal. I only watch them late at night. This…
A woman is outside at five a.m., hugging herself, telling her dog to pee. Silver webs through her pink-blonde hair. Her slippers sandpaper across the cement. Before all this started,…
Baby choked to death on a cherry pit. You’re not supposed to give them the cherries with pits. Gummy mouth, tight little throat. Later he isn’t sure if it was him…
The smaller bedroom had a cream carpet and a pair of birds painted on the wall in gold, blue, and emerald green. “Previous residents used this room as a nursery,”…
My landlord has left a lumpily-rolled joint on my breakfast bar. “Doo-bie mellow!” his note says. I don’t really mind that he keeps barging in. A lean and sporty retiree,…
When the ashfall came, we stayed indoors, and when it stopped, we dug ourselves out. We were far enough from the eruption that nothing had burned, but when the rain…
Other than the heat, nothing else here has changed. The cobblestone on the streets is as old as ever, and so are the yayas, who still perch on their balconies…
None of Betsy McCormack’s teeth fell out; they just grew in on top of each other like a shark’s. When she finally got the baby teeth removed this spring, that’s…
We realize just outside Viana do Castelo we have a stowaway. We had woven our way through the warm evening up the Portuguese coast, quiet from an afternoon spent on…
Ellaria Jane Peterson is going to die. She has always known this about herself, the way everyone knows this about themselves, but she has not really believed she was destined…
I like to describe what stinky tofu smells like to anyone who’s never smelled it. Skunks. Rotten eggs. Dog’s breath. Stinky enough that people can’t tell if they’re eating it…
Curly-haired girls, I promise you this video is going to solve your biggest problems. For those of you who are new here, my name is Xiomara—welcome to my channel Xo…
