• These are better when read aloud or very slowly.


    I inserted my pencil into the sharpener and the whole room spins. The back of my head hits something hard, and I ponder my whereabouts while I recover from my short burst of vertigo. Then I realize my pants are gone.

    He reached into his pocket for any spare change for the old man in front of him. Nothing out of the ordinary, a bit under 750,000 people are homeless in the US, the man was wearing an old tattered leather jacket and a warm grin on his face for the generosity of the young man in front of him. His wallet's missing.

    "Fetch me her birth certificate," the Devil said to the father,"nobody will die as a result."
    The man, concerned of his daughters welfare, retrieved the paper to find, to his horror, her name changed to 'nobody'.

    I must've had at least ten in me when I walked out of the bar at 3:34. How I remember'd tha' time I'll never know. I only saw the guns once they were on me, I thought maybe they'd leave me alone since I didn't have any money on me. Boy was I wrong. The first shot came at my shoulder, the guy frowned and the other gunman yelled to stop after the third shot. It was my son who ran away last week.

    The car wouldn't start and she was stuck thirty miles out of town without a phone. She begins to cry as the glove compartment opens, she digs through. The license and information packets are tossed on the passenger seat. An old granola bar, three pens, and her father's old leather riding gloves. Might as well put them on, when she sees a small silver cross in one of the fingers. She wipes her tears as she starts the car,"Thanks Dad I'll be home soon."

    The quiet wind creates ripples on the surface of the water. His hand meets hers on the quiet deserted beach. Far away from her father they are in love. This is the end of her life, the end of his life as well, and yet the beginning of their life.