Throughput

Under/Over the Bed

In his sleep, he had pulled up the covers, leaving his feet exposed to the cold air and whatever might come out from under the bed. He couldn’t help imagining the feeling of something grabbing him — claws, hairy hands, bony skeleton fingers — so he immediately tucked in his legs, pulling…

The Minotaur on Main Street

See this man sleeping in a pose like a corpse in a coffin? This is Lazarus Tax. (No relation to the Biblical Lazarus. Unlike that Lazarus, this one seems unlikely to come back to life.)

Lost Worlds

The city would be building a new road, and it was my job to scout out the path and assess how difficult it would be to clear it. Aside from trees and brush, I discovered only one thing in the way. A tiny, dilapidated old house still rested peacefully along the intended roadway. It was crumbling down and…

The Best Policy

The Pitchman was just finishing his spiel with a previous group of passers-by when a new group began to form and he launched into his pitch again. Normally, I ignore such things, but this was different.

Leaving and Coming Back

He was dreading the return to his childhood home.

He had just left a brief but encouraging encounter with a former classmate. She was someone he remembered fondly, and there was something about their exchange that made him believe something could come of it. He…

A Man Retired at 65 and Spent the Rest of His Days Watching Television and Listening to Talk Radio

He died at 73 but stopped living twenty years before that.

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The Latest Model: A Sonnet

The moment that I signed the dotted line,
I felt a love so unconventional.
Her love for me could not be by design,
According to her software manual.

The Room of Books

In a faraway land, there is a Great Palace within which was built the Room of Books. Inside the Room of Books are tomes filled with the greatest wisdom from every culture and every age. It is said that within these books, one can know all there is to know. As is the case with such things…

Where Are They Now?

She is watching an old television show that she has not seen since she was a little girl. She wonders about the actors and what their lives have been like since they were in the show. Are they still alive? Are they still actors? What do they look like? What challenges have they faced? Where…