After inviting me to join him at one of those East Side Milwaukee taverns that notoriously caters to those who like to imbibe in excess — an offer that I subsequently decline respectfully, Mike shows up in my waiting room later that same day. Like a handful of “special” clients, he maintains a walk-in status at the clinic and is not expected to make appointments. On the surface, he has a menacing appearance: a pockmarked face and the black-brown eyes of a shark. He is kn

The food court took up most of the ground floor of the office building. Unlike food courts in shopping malls, it featured full-size restaurants with dine-in seating. The restaurants surrounded a common area with tables and chairs. If a group of friends had different tastes on a given day, they could get carry-out from the restaurants and eat together in the common area. Brian Fielden came out of the Indian place with his chicken curry lunch in one of those styrofoam boxes wi

“Because it’s life-changing!” a middle-aged woman in a woven poncho joyfully screamed when asked why she was competing for the $50,000 prize. Maire Cletz, the region’s most popular news personality, slowly continued down the line recording everyone’s answer. “It will be so much fun! Wooooo,” a thirtysomething skater dude shouted, his face painted red, a pair of plastic devil horns atop his head. Finally, she reached me. “I’m an artist. I’m doing it for my art,” I said lo

Paul had reached, we hoped, the final leg of his dissertation on La-Z-Boy recliners. “Babe, help your mother,” Gracie said. She was a good one. Megan, Paul’s mother, looked to be in no particular need of help, but Gracie tried to push Paul always in the right direction. He needed it. Megan couldn’t do it anymore. She’d passed the torch. “Hold on,” Paul said, “I’m mansplaining simultaneous recline and rock.” He said things like that, but I guess we still loved him. By

On the shortest day of the year, in a place abandoned by the Arctic sun, a goose-stepping squad of soldiers hold electric arc lamps...

My name is Finn Ramey. I’m twelve years old. I was born February 5th, 1940. The story I’m about to tell you is true. I swear. Well, I...

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In my twenty-first summer, I learned how to be nocturnal. Once I realized I prefer the dark, it was simply a matter of reorganizing my...

Cara made it to the railing first, a few seconds ahead of Brooke. Although her lungs felt like they were going to explode, Cara did her...

Ed grabbed his keys and walked into his kitchen. His wife sat at the small table, catalogues spread before her, smoking a Winston Light....

I was skin and bone my mother said and she was right, I was Grapes of Wrath skinny, but I guess Mr. Smalley understood hunger, its...

It was a box, and who had three thousand bucks to spend on a box? Her daddy would have said, just wrap me in a bedsheet and drop me in a...

We went to the botanica to pick out something nice and easy to heal Tami’s marriage. I knew it was falling apart because of all of the...

The sigh the pepper let out when Samantha sliced through him blew most his teeth away. Well, his seeds. Yellow peppers don’t really have...

Natalie’s phone chimed with the arrival of an email from MyAncestry, sending a ripple of anticipation through her. Finally, she was going...

To the immersive theater experience you wear a slinky black dress, a hat with a tiny birdcage veil, fishnet stockings, T-strap heels. You...

I buried my mom last week, and her first leaf emerged this morning. The green limb blinked out of the dirt bed. The directions on her...

Wes Anderson’s leaning forlornly at the edge of a deserted gravel road, but instead of doing anything about it, Josh is getting his drone...

Rough grass tickled the backs of her bare legs as Naseem lay on her back, watching the chinar leaves dance in the zephyr. Aslam lay next...

I just learned more about this composer, Schubert, yesterday. I was trying a new song in my lesson, and my cello teacher filled me in...