I’m in New York state as part of a secret government agency that has sent me to retrieve (extradite?) Omar Little (from The Wire). His van has been stolen and he needs some help getting out of the town but he’s also suspected of a series of crimes here. Naturally he maintains his non-involvement and […]
We’re at a bookstore, A. and I. It’s a used bookstore but it looks like a good haul. They have several copies of Snow Crash (for example) though they’re all in varying states of decay. I go through each one meticulously; I want to leave with one of them. I get an alert on my […]
I go in for a haircut but the salon has become a tattoo parlor instead. My usual stylist is there with the tattoo machine, preparing the needles and the inks. We make some chit-chat, catching up about The Boy and that time my refrigerator exploded. She asks me what I want and where I want […]
The kitchen isn’t a wreck but one of the chairs is pulled out and there is a basket of laundry left on the floor. I’m too exhausted to do anything about these errant items quite yet so I leave them where they are. I make some coffee and retire to the living room to drink […]
At the end of a long square chamber, I’m locked into a narrow channel that runs along its back (front?) wall. It’s just barely wide enough to crouch down in. There is a breathy howl from the far end of the chamber. I can see movement but not the creature itself. It is coming for […]
We are attending what is probably the worst organized party in history; certainly it’s the worst organized party we’ve ever attended. The party is being hosted in a house that is entirely too large for the man that lives in it — one of those over-paid executives with no kids that still finds it acceptable […]
A terrorist (think Irish Republican Army and not Al-Qaeda) has holed up in the hospital. The weapon he uses is some kind of sub-space brane that seems to fold matter into itself. As a hostage, I witness him calling on the brane — which looks like a misty pink cloud — to unfurl itself from […]
Post-apocalyptic. Landscape is overrun with forests; thick, chocking forests. What left of us all fit on a train. We live on this train. We must keep it moving or else perish. No one knows what lives out there in those woods. We rarely stop; we cannot afford to stop. When we do stop it is […]
I’m sitting in an IT office surrounded by computers and monitors and peripherals &c. when she comes in. She looks like an extra The Maltese Falcon, all skirtsuit, scarf, and sweater. The only thing that she is missing is the hat. She starts rifling through the items in the office, building a computer more/less right […]
A. and I return to our car, going home from a dinner party. We get into the car. I’m driving. The car is parallel parked and the street is slick and a light rain is coming down. I maneuver the car out of its space but the car gets stuck in reverse. I try to […]