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Nice Shot

November 2, 2017
It is late afternoon on Wednesday, and the house is quiet aside from the gunfire and explosions. They are playing a level set in Paris in 1943, which is thankfully devoid of civilians. Jeremy has the rifle and Fred is using the shotgun. Jeremy is trying to figure out how to move over a low...

Summers Off

October 17, 2017
The feeding tube at this college is not wide enough for Sam Blencher, according to Sam Blencher. It is a state college in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, and Sam has mistaken me, his teacher and his junior by fifteen years, as his broadband access to the academic enlightenment he is due. “You tenure profs are babysitters,”...

Guiltless Pleasures

October 17, 2017
Our bus had gotten stuck in the traffic of Friday evening commuters fleeing Manhattan. Now we’d be lucky to make dinner. Recorded flute music played overhead, to soothe us I supposed as we waited in line to check in, but I was distracted by my empty stomach. An effete bearded man wearing a loose smock...

Tundra

July 21, 2017
By the time she was driving a fifteen-passenger van to the Outer Cape, Rose could no longer look at Declan, who slouched in the seat beside her, polishing his gold-plated harmonica. A fellow chaperone on the Barrett Hall senior trip, he’d contributed almost nothing except lazy charm and conspicuous flash. While Rose squinted at the...

The Key Park

July 21, 2017
We weren’t supposed to be in the playground, which was reserved for faculty who lived in the fifties style housing blocks nearby, but Simon’s preschool used it for outdoor play, and kids from his class were always going over after. My daughter Ruby was home on spring break that week and she talked me into...