When Johnny thinks about Loraine and her touch, it's as if the Holy Spirit is tickling his spine. But Johnny is more than tickled when he finds out Loraine is pregnant with his child. An almost-saved Christian, a not-quite-sober alcoholic and part-time lover of Loraine, Johnny is not sure where h...
He brought home books that he was reading, and he left them lying about. I would pick them up and read certain sections, and then I would ask him about a specific idea or an author, and so we would converse. As we spoke and argued and debated, I remembered that I had once been enamoured of certai...
She sits naked on the toilet and groans into her hands. The room is cold. The furnace must have cut out during the night or the wood stove needed stoking. Her dress and stockings are laid out on the bed. She put them there last night, before opening the bottle and dipping into the heat that slid ...
He worked the night shift and returned as the sun was rising, and there was always immense hope in that moment, though it didn’t last. Sleeping in the daylight seemed to produce fewer dreams and for that he was thankful. One day after work he stopped at a travel agency and bought a ticket for Han...
IN HER BACKPACK SHE HAD EXTRA UNDERWEAR AND SOCKS and a sweater, and she had a flashlight, her toothbrush and toothpaste, a New Testament from her mother, maps of Mexico and the United States, and she had a bottle of water and two oranges and tortillas and beans to eat on the road. She had five t...