Texting My Dead Dad
June 3rd, 2017 – Four Months Before Do you know the Netflix Password? Most of our text messages were mundane. “Are you at work right now?” he once asked. “Yes. Off at ten,” I texted back. We were quick with each other. We left it there. I don’t remember now …
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Jack Pine
Vivian didn’t know how much more she could take. Maury moped around the cabin, hardly going outside, annoyingly underfoot. If he wasn’t sleeping or bothering her, he was plunked in front of the window staring at that damn jack pine, its branches gnarled and lopsided—a Halloween tree, she called it. …
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Growth Hacking
At first, we thought the mango tree was another one of Susan’s shticks. A way to feel good about showing up every morning and motivating us to write code or handle support tickets or cold-call prospects or dream up new marketing bullshit or whatever it was management expected us to …
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She
when the air cools at dusk, scent of primrose on chiffon. I press my face to her shawl, inhale remnants of warmth. She is music floating up from the dining room, where melody dwindles to absence. I recoil against the fire-glow end of her cigarette. She, the honeyed hall light …
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flyBaby
We flew our babies high, worry-free, with ample cord wrapped around the trees. We flew them in the open skies, their sequined booties glinting the sun, stars flashing at midday. And when the fogs came, we rolled back our roofs and flew them from our living rooms, gin in hand, …
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The Universe
One day, the Universe said to me, “I am the Universe. I will give you what you ask for.” That same day, I submitted a request in writing. I wrote: I would like Giovanni to call me immediately, take me out for a romantic dinner tonight, and fall in love …
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Why I Break Stuff
I break stuff. Chronically. I don’t know why. For several years my wife, Leslie, kept a delicate heirloom teacup made of fragile porcelain on her nightstand. One evening, while getting ready for bedtime, I tossed an extra pillow off the bed. As it left my hands, it brushed the teacup …
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YMCA
The man who sells us pizza moonlights here, lambasting women on stationary bikes up imaginary hills. His class, my friend says, always fills. There is something touching about this: a man’s unwanted flair for browbeating transformed into an asset at last. I know some misery finds the Y, too. A …
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Recovery from Simultaneous Stroke and Cardiac Arrest
A health reporter’s non-scientific abstract on what really happened to her boyfriend during the scariest year of her life Background: Fifty-nine-year-old Caucasian male collapses without warning on July 26, 2011 at approximately 7 p.m. Central Time. Incident takes place on public street while patient is walking son’s dog, Joanie (as …
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