Peter never learned why no one asked about the violin or told him he needed to return it to Standish Middle School. Only later he realized it was probably because it was worth so little to begin with …

“Mamma, I met this beautiful guy.” “Oh really? Where is he from?” “Pakistan.” “No no, no need. Those are very aggressive.” “Ma, we are literally the same. We …

Misquotations People always remember the first words Neil Armstrong said when taking his famed steps. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” People remember …

When Olanna O. Odum was promoted to standards editor at the Times, she found herself laughing. The job description had said they were looking for someone with “strong, sharp judgment” and …

My friend Claire said that her daddy once told her that if you took all of the lies humans had told since the beginning of time and set them up in the sky, the sky would become the lies because …

When I sat down, we shot the shit about this and that for a minute, but I knew there was something on Pablo’s mind. So, after he started his second drink while going on about how students always …

There are only five things Molly would miss if she killed herself. She would miss her vape. She’d miss the taste of its hazelnut coffee-like pulls and the exhaled clouds that take up more space in …

Here in Westerville, the City Services Department handled weed complaints from picky residents who value beautiful lawns. For a modest fee, crews would pick up well-sorted yard waste three times per …

The World is ending. In twenty-six minutes the servers that sustained the World for almost thirty years, housed in datacenters strewn across three continents, will emit their death rattles. Players …

I said to him that I had been trying to write a story in a Ring Lardner sort of style. He asked me what a Ring Lardner sort of style was. Ring Lardner was a writer of humorous stories, I said…

Lying in bed with Kevin, I’m playing a game of boredom chicken. I won’t reach for my phone until he does. I’m in the crook of his arm, looking at his out-of-focus face. Now that we’ve done …

Mr. Gland said he wanted my hair for a wig because his wife was bald from cancer treatments. I said there are other wigs that she could have, surely, and he said true, but my hair perfectly matched …

You enter from the garage to the wag of dog tails and the sound of their sharp nails on hardwood. Work has drained and exhausted you. You have reflux, eyestrain, a slight throbbing in the temples. …

For her, wearing a watch wasn’t necessary. If you pay attention to the air, to the light in the air, to how light fastens to things, you can tell time. In summer it’s easier, but in …

Mattress City USA was tucked off a busy road in a strip-mall that included a gas station known for car-jackings, a down-at-heel florist's shop, and a daycare with grease-paint drawings of rainbows, …

Mme Rimbaud got a new haircut. Une coupe nouvelle. It isn't as good as the old haircut. It has no puff, no coiffed look. Someone needs to floof it. Mme Rimbaud lives in her afterlife wearing her …

Dressing for work the day after her fifty-third birthday, W— struggled to get into her favorite sweater.  Supple and soft, roomy but flattering, this sweater, but today it felt as if the …

Systems Engineer Higata was a modest man, but if pride ever thrummed inside him, it was because he had found the secret to a happy existence. 

“Dudes,” Gwen calls to us from the porch. “Get thee the fuck out here.”             Sunil and I set down our beers …

In a building with twelve floors, we are on the sixth, crouching in the bathroom. I have not seen you this way in years, running my fingers over each bone, counting them: fourteen small, hard parts …