She injected the transaction with politeness and respect as the cashier scanned her large cookie, hot Cheetos, gummy bears, and liter of grape soda. That sweetness she was pinched for as a kid if she didn’t do is what ignited what the cashier said next. “Thank you,” she smiled, shamefully grabbing her bag of snacks.… Continue reading Beyond the Face.
He sat at the bar with his buddies, hovering over a watered-down shot of patron he’s been taking sips of all night. His friends were taking shot after shot after shot, but he was working on the same shot and bottle of beer all night. She didn’t like him to drink. She was supposed to… Continue reading Different Shades of Black.
He stared at me, hidden and protected by all the dropped heads looking at their phones in the crowd. He looked like an officer, but most white men do to me. He had a gun snuggling against his hip though. But he didn’t have a uniform on, just a faded shirt that said FBI: Female… Continue reading Black-handed
He couldn’t see her in the tiny storage closet, but he could smell her. She smelled like home. Not his home, which reeked of greasy pizza boxes and inside-out underwear, but home. She smelled of sweet pea body wash and the mint chocolate-chip gum she always kept a pack of in her purse. That was… Continue reading In a Storage Closet in Paris.
Frog crouched down behind the couch in the dark apartment, the sunlight that shimmied into the apartment through the small cracks in the blinds illuminated the round, chocolate cake in his hands that’s finished off with cricket and mealworm confetti. His cool, green toes anxiously dug into the cherry-wood floor and fat beads of… Continue reading Frog and Toad Are Friends: The Gift
At five on the dot today, after sitting through an oral exam for over an hour, I spontaneously decided to go to the end of the year party the English department held for majors and minors. I decided on this last minute, and only since I was on campus for a final and I would… Continue reading Surprise Awards.
I was eating alone, at a table with a view at the entrance. A stranger walked in, headed straight to my table, and said hi. No name, likes and dislikes, life purpose, mood, or anything else came after that word. Instead, he slammed his big-bellied backpack down on the woozy, wooden table making the glasses… Continue reading The Stranger with the Tupperware
First, she lost the waves of strawberry blonde that ended at her waist. Then she lost her mouthwatering skin, a bright and throbbing red like a bed of ripe and ready strawberries in a strawberry field. She used to have a tasty, round figure that everyone would drool over, but now she’s dry, with off-black… Continue reading Death and Decaying.
Today I am Samantha, and it is my twenty-first birthday. Well, according to this ID and credit card that’s my life. I go down to Denny’s for a free breakfast. The waiter asks to see my ID because he swears up and down that he saw me in here last week. Last week I was… Continue reading Nine Lives.
My grandma dropped out of school in the second grade. Things were different back then. But one day, when women finally began to gain rights and when my grandmother finally began to gain the courage to unlock the chains that pulled her down from liberation my grandmother decided to take the GED test. I had… Continue reading For Grandma.
