The Park
My dad used to say that you should never half-ass anything, so when I took up smoking at fourteen, I jumped right into a pack a day. At least, that’s what my mom, an explosive little Latina, told me he used to say. He passed
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Silent Squeals
It’s hard to ignore five hundred pounds of rotting meat, but I was the only one who could smell it, and at first it wasn’t the smell, it was the RUSTLE behind two plain, white double doors that appeared at the hallway’s dead end. I’d
The Funeral Tape
We are all watching my father and the funeral home director fiddle with the cords on the back of a TV and VCR combo-on-wheels that the funeral home provided us. The funeral apparently isn’t only interested in deceased human bodies. “Weren’t they our age when
Dance Of The Tamborines
The sun has just risen. Nebahat sits under the largest dome, on the central marble, with her head dropped down. She’s pondering who knows what, wiggling her toes in her plastic slippers. Her eye catches one or two frail hairs on her legs. She attempts
Logically It Was Easy
A few months before they’d split up, her ex-wife, Cal, had told her about a TV show she’d seen where one character grabbed another by the upper arms, looked into their eyes and whispered, “The Lakota have a superstition that you don’t die properly until
A Child Of No Means
This was in Long Beach, 1996. On the first night of the very first heatwave of the year, Tinoy was in his room with his girlfriend Chana, sharing a joint while listening to the neighbors make love from the apartment above. Outside, the rumble of
Visitations
Daniel was praying. It was still early, sunless dawn filling the sole window of his bedroom. In the next room, the spring mattress squeaked, a body shifting weight. Daniel tensed, listened for more waking noises. But the snoring—he couldn’t tell whether his mom’s or dad’s—continued.
The Bluegrass of God
CHARACTERS: ALITA, a small and deformed and living in an abandoned barn. About twenty or so. Wears a simple dress made from gunny sacks. PAULA, a social worker, expectant mother, thirties. SETTING: The old abandoned barn in the middle of nowhere. A storm is overhead,
Princess of the Sea
Characters Princess of the Sea, a 16-year-old high school student, African American Milkman, African American Mother, African American Time and Setting The present. Morning. A kitchen (a table, chairs). At rise: PRINCESS enters. Looking disheveled, she is dressed in PJs and a bathrobe. Today
A Worthie Woman All Hir Live
CAST: 2 persons — 1 F, 1 M [doubling] Allison — college instructor, a medievalist, mid-30s, recently widowed Stranger — sly, small-time con man, late 20s Policeman — police officer (off-stage voice) Setting: suggestion of a kitchen — chairs, table, counter top, a