ronearl

He comes here every fuckin’ Tuesday, orders the same damn drink and tries to get with the same kind of woman, every fuckin’ Tuesday. His game is weaker than the shit that they be slingin’ on the corner these days and he knows it but he keeps comin’ back every fuckin’ Tuesday and he keeps […]

“Kiss me before you go,” Janis said. I grabbed her and forced my lips onto hers. “Christ!  You need to relax, baby,” she said.  “Loosen up.  Kissing you is like kissing a brick wall.” I got out of the car.  She leaned across the seat as I closed the door.  “Get out of there as […]

“Meet the new boss.” Lorca had just finished loading detergent onto the van.  He climbed down and saw a middle-aged guy, vaguely familiar, with his arms folded across his chest.  He had a flat-top of sandy blonde hair. “Where’s Ross?” Lorca asked. “Pastor Phelps caught him watching porn on the company laptop.  Third strike, I […]

We sat in this metal drainage pipe and listened to the traffic thump across the seam in the pavement over our heads. This was home, at least until it got dark and we had to go home for real. But between the time we got out of school until the time we had to leave, […]

It’s about one a.m. and I walk into buzzing harsh light. A little bell tinkles over the door. The skinny guy with jet black hair and tats everywhere doesn’t even look up. I mean this fucker is a tattoo. I don’t see any clear skin. He looks like an Aztec fuckin’ warrior or something. No […]

They pull her out of the Industrial Canal, her eyes swollen out and all over me. I get a chill like the Mississippi water was pouring out of my throat rather than hers. I can’t say anything. There’s nothing to be said to her now. “Fucking horrible,” says one of the patrolmen. The winch sets […]

The lake was quiet, serene. The boat hardly moved. “You know Hitchcock, you’re not what I expected.” This is the psychopath everyone tells spooky stories about? Maybe it was the chains, the handcuffs, the imminent death…But the guy didn’t look like much. Unlike Leroy, who appeared capable of wrestling a grisly bear, Hitchcock was average […]

Harry opened the door. Jules stood on the porch holding a brown paper bag.  “Thought we could throw back a few.”  He looked past Harry into the dark apartment.  “You alone?” Harry nodded and stepped away from the door. Jules came inside and went straight for the kitchen.  “Mind if I put these in the […]

Not many of my friends want to be altar boys anymore. I know what you think; the Church has done a lot of wrong, but there are still good people working to help the needy and change things from within. I became an altar server right after I was Confirmed. My mother always wanted me […]

The car didn’t even slow down, that was what upset Maureen the most. More than her newly-permed hair whipping across her face, more than the pounding in her chest. She stood in the middle of the pedestrian crossing and watched her precious oranges bounce off down the road. “You little toe-rag,” she screeched, waving her […]

I walk down the stone pier. It’s slick with slime and excrement and littered with ash. Dark water slaps against pylons. I look over the river. Even at this hour, it lives. Thick with the poor and powerful. The citizen and the criminal. Lost in lantern light and darkness. Choking curls of pyre smoke. Behind […]

Phirun was watching the weather report when the kid pulled a .380 that probably hadn’t been cleaned since the Carter administration. “I want the cash, man! Hand it over!” He was leprosy thin, with dirty hands, peach fuzz on his chin, lousy teeth, a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. tee. Phirun looked back at the television. The […]