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My roommate spoke in tongues. When he moved in, he just sang hymns at night. Loud though. Same guy who whispered when handling the business of the house chanted while alone in a resolute bass: […]
Alex the fry cook asked me if I wanted to score some meth, and I ignored him and after our shift I caught the bus, which, at one point, pulled over for a man who […]
For years, they’d all taken bets on who would be next. I tried not to resent anyone who guessed me. “We’re sorry, Diya,” they said as they collected their winnings. “Where do you want the […]
OK, it’s time to stop worrying about ADHD and start worrying about ADHME, so catch me bursting into Wawa each morning like an aging Kool-Aid Man, huffing wind through a retired-pro-wrestler-with-barrel-chest-and-belly dad torso shoddily held […]
Whenever I ask someone how they are and they respond, “Living the DREAM,” I wonder how close they are to killing themselves. “Living the Dream” is a response that can only be said appropriately in […]
For a summer I snatched cucumbers off a belt and into cardboard boxes. Sixteen per batch, send the box down the chute. A third of my co-workers wore orange jumpsuits. Another third didn’t speak English. […]
Rush hour. A graveyard of cars on the LA-to-OC asphalt, engine heat shimmering, a thousand red taillights smearing the horizon. My Prius idled—a metal coffin in the procession. He slid into the back seat wearing […]
The single syllable words used in junior high were forbidden: cunt, fuck, shit. I wasn’t sure if cunt was the same thing as vagina and was too embarrassed to ask. The multi-syllabic words used at […]
My best friend wasn’t raised Catholic, but her boyfriend was. He tells her the stories he learned in church every Sunday and she imagines them the same way I imagine falling in love after I […]
What did I know at the time? I was eighteen when I chose my path. All the girls I grew up with on Long Island were doing the same, becoming nurses, teachers. Pink collar jobs, […]
