Gun Dealers’ Daughter

In the chapel, Baroque music played from invisible speakers, and the haunting tones of a sourceless cantata convinced me momentarily of the presence of God. He was there in… More

Subliminal

He decided to guess who the perpetrator was, even though he had nothing to base his suspicions on, like a poker player going all in with a pair of… More

Like Any Normal Day

While the sport would never be entirely free of peril, the dangers that remained embedded in it called upon young men to prove themselves in ways that no other… More

The Intake Office

So much time is wasted when they won’t do the simplest things they’re asked. The newly dead, Bea thought, are just pathetic. More

The Humbug

"The Philosophy of Composition” is a lovely little essay, but, as Poe himself admitted, it’s a bit of jiggery-pokery, too. More

The Cardboard House

You do not understand how one can possibly go to school so early in the morning, especially when there are esplanades and the sea below. More

The Island of Second Sight

People ate differently here, talked differently, scolded differently. I would have to adapt. I realized this within the hour during which I was the wideeyed observer of this nation’s… More

Moby-Duck

At the outset, I had no intention of doing what I eventually did: quit my job, kiss my wife farewell, and ramble about the Northern Hemisphere aboard all manner… More

The Shadow Book

First are the kinds of shadow books that fail to be written: the Africana Encyclopedia by Du Bois; the second novels of Jean Toomer or Ralph Ellison that never… More