This story comes from my collection, School Police, available now.

Anne Wondra was eighteen and Ken Pierce was thirty-five. She was beautiful and had a face that fuzzed out of focus for Ken, like a dream. Ken met her at a bar, they talked, she showed him her fake ID, and she told him she ran by his house every three or four days. One time, in June, he called to her when he saw her, she came over, and he asked her out. She agreed, they went to a movie and three weeks later he took her virginity. He only met her at night, only when she wasn’t seeing her friends. He would never meet her parents. He would never see her bedroom and never tell her he loved her, which he did.
Buy School Police Continue reading →

This story comes from my collection, School Police, available now.

We were about a mile from our house, heading west on Route 151. It was the middle of summer. Our twins, Joy and Andy, were in the back seat, and my wife tugged on my sleeve and pointed. Leonard, our cat, was sprawled on the berm. I pulled off and my wife and kids got out. Leonard was still breathing, but it didn’t look good.

He yowled in the back while the kids built up a blanket around him like a nest. My wife sat in the back to keep their hands off him. His legs were bloody, and my wife mouthed to me in the rear view mirror that they were broken.

Joy was crying. Andy was looking at Leonard and trying to cover him up.
Continue reading →