Dead Letter

School began not long after we returned from the South. The children’s lives are divided between their mother’s house in the suburbs—formerly, our shared marital domicile—and our apartment in the city. The schools in the city are preferable to those in the suburbs, so the kids are registered in my local school district. This means [...]

Read Full Post »

Sis

That night, after my talk with the teenagers, the sex dreams took a turn for the incestuous. Following our afternoon on the boat, Lynn’s boyfriend had broken up with her via telephone. Lynn made a tearful call to break this news to her mother, my brother Jesse’s ex wife Teri. This got me to thinking [...]

Read Full Post »

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Viviane poured two stiff bourbons, on the rocks. “Okay, show me your driver’s license,” she said. I pulled out my wallet. “Okay, good. Now take this,” she said, handing me a pen. “And this,” she added, handing me my drink. “Cheers.” “Cheers.” I took a belt, opened the pen, and changed the course of my [...]

Read Full Post »

Tainted Love

In the autumn of my senior year of high school, my heart was broken for the first time. Debra was a junior, a vivacious and silly girl, with freckles, porcelain skin and wavy hair. She was hanging out with Allan when she got to know me. We decided this was it, and fell fast in [...]

Read Full Post »

Donnie Says

It is very hard to summarize a relationship into a single posting in a blog. But I did want you to know Donnie. The thing hardest to get into a summary is his voice. I didn’t even try. Instead, I will let him speak for himself, by sharing one of the letters he sent me [...]

Read Full Post »