Wake me up when September ends, dear," she said, and then my mother rolled over and fell asleep amid a drift of comforters and overstuffed pillows. A single red-orange leaf lay beside her pillow, like an alarm clock promising to wake her up when her season came around again. As it happens, this had been one of the better summers that I could ( Read more... )

The jukebox was playing my tune when I walked into the bar, and that right there should have been enough to make me turn around and walk back out. But I like my tune. That's why it's my tune. It puts some extra swagger in my Levi's and some extra oomph in my smile. Least, that's what I judge from the way the barflies react when I walk in during my ( Read more... )

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I stay away from the jar of flies she keeps in every room. They're her spies, and they buzz in her ears at night when she takes all the jars into her bedroom and lets them fly around while she sleeps. Sometimes this means she knows things she shouldn't. Sometimes it also means she believes her dreams are true. This can be very bad if she has ( Read more... )

The first thing she did when she visited a new town was seek out the mall. There was a comfort in the mall's homogeneity, and after dealing with constant change, when change was what she tracked and what she rode and what she killed or integrated, the constancy and homogeneity was a supreme comfort and a way to recharge her spirit. Food court food ( Read more... )

Samedi sat at the crossroads and laughed at her, but she fancied herself a righteous woman with nothing to fear from voodoo devils, so she settled her best church hat square on her head, lifted her chin, and strode out to meet him, a bible in one hand and a pamphlet in the other. "Woman," the Baron said, "why are you here? You are not one of those ( Read more... )

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