As the guests were transitioning from dinner to dessert the gracious host approached the bandstand, took the microphone, and dismissed the band. “Let’s hear it for Carl and the Clean Scene... [+]
Seven-year-old Isabella Thompson pressed her hands into the cool, moist dirt of her grandfather's garden. She peeled away the surface like an old scab. Beneath, a reddish-brown earthworm squirmed... [+]
To call this elegant metropolis “The City of the Ape” does it a considerable disservice, but it is impossible to avoid. Every time we speak of something being as old as the Ape, we reaffirm the... [+]
Near Paulo’s home, in the rich deep earth, dark eggs lay. They waited for decades, to be brought to hatch. When they hatched, they hatched death, or dismemberment, bursting forth with all the... [+]
Royals Primary has the second grade corralled into the gym.
“What you want to do,” I tell the kids, “is draw a mask that looks a lot like your face. As close as you can get it, except... [+]
August brought with it a new easy-swallow scheme by a new self-improvement mentor. Luna Rojas had measured out her life with the likes of them – detoxes, spiritual awakenings, fad diets. She... [+]
The dryad who lives inside the oak tree has been terrorizing the condo building dwellers for generations. She throws acorns and pours sap and drops pollen on their cars, and causes severe allergies... [+]
There was a man on the doorstep, all leatherette shoes and easy iron trousers. When I say doorstep I mean the pavement between the threshold and the hazard lines of a busy junction.
His head... [+]
Through the weeping household stalked a small black cat—just past kittenhood, and more gamine than gangly. She darted past the skirts of a grieving wife as the woman buried her face in a... [+]
Once you become visible, it’s hard to disappear into the shadows again, but Hank White was doing his level best. His life depended on it. People looked right through you when you were flipping... [+]