There was always cigarette smoke. Always a conversation in a hallway and shrieking laughter in the kitchen. The beer was running low and a candle had been left dangerously burning in a bedroom. A door slammed. A phone call would send off a carload and those left emptied the ashtrays, heated up a can of […]

To wrap a body takes thirty-five minutes and a blue tarp (large and without holes or tears), duct tape (most of a roll to do the job properly), plastic sheeting (if you have it) or, in a pinch, newspaper to lay in the car trunk to catch fluids that might leak out, and rope—don’t forget […]

Shelley catches herself humming “Some Day My Prince Will Come” as she’s washing the dishes, and snorts, thinking about jiveass fairy tales. Not just Disney, and those Golden Books from Lucky’s she read when she was a kid. Hollywood movies too. “An Officer and a Gentleman” when Richard Gere sweeps Debra Winger off her feet and carries her […]