I fled to Ohio right before my 21st birthday. It was the best kind of escape I could manage after years of trying, finally leaving my parents’ hovel to live with my boyfriend Jay, who had just graduated college with a degree in classics. I was teetering on the verge of something close to insanity, [...]
Death and the future have been much on my mind lately. My uncle died last year, after a very long battle with diabetes and kidney problems. Part of me wants to say it’s his own fault. He spent something like a decade after he was diagnosed completely refusing to stick to a sensible diet. He [...]
When I burned out of college in spring of 2006, I found myself needing cash in the worst kind of way. I was flipping through the newspaper when I found an ad that read: “Sweeper Vac Driver needed. 3rd shift only” And gave subsequent contact info. I’m really great doing over night work and decided [...]
Honduras. Years ago. Years. Resort. Beautiful. Bar. On the Beach. Young blond guy. Turns out he was 18. Even as young as I was back then, I still had 10 years on him. God he was Gorgeous. He actually took my breath away when I first looked at him. Sunset. Tropical drinks with 6 kinds [...]
Growing up, we vacationed on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. One of our visits happened to be the summer after my sophomore year in high school, shortly after I became No Longer Ugly, shortly after I realized there just might be hope for my ridiculous redheaded appearance. My braces were gone, my teeth were slick, [...]
I am in the heart of the earth, a delicate canyon holding dried grapevines, petroglyphs, cigarette butts, bottle caps and a trickle of water no wider than my hand. I won’t tell you how to find this place. Know that it is within range of the vampire havens of Vegas and Laughlin. Know that from [...]
The pink slip of paper with the worn creases neatly folded/refolded in my wallet serves as a reminder. Deep down, I wanted to get caught. I wanted to see the flash of lights in my rear view mirror. I deserved to be punished. Deep down, I truly believed it despite all of my words to [...]
Tom You and I are lying on the bed. I stare at the ceiling, at the shadows created from the motel curtains and the hot autumn sun beating against the window. The television has been off for some time, now. It’s quiet and dim and in the distance, I can hear the highway. Our things [...]
I left my 9-year-old at Bloomingdale’s (the original one) a couple weeks ago. Last seen, he was in first floor handbags as I sashayed out the door. Was I worried? Yes, a tinge. But it didn’t strike me as that daring, either. Isn’t New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It’s not [...]
He’s alone in the lobby of the Chinese joint on the corner. He kicks a plastic ball — the big, colorful kind you buy at the dollar store for fifty cents — against the wall, and he focuses intently as it travels back to him. He pauses as I walk in, and resumes as soon [...]