Ghost Parachute

When Bobby came into school dressed as a caterpillar, we never would have guessed what he’d grow up to be. It was World Book Day. His costume was a green pair of trousers, a bogey-coloured t-shirt and two toilet roll tubes taped to his head. We thought he was an alien. Or maybe he was […]

Marshall Applewhite likes his sushi cooked. Tempura everything, extra ginger, no seaweed. Lit purple by the neon sign blinking O P   N by his tableside, Marshall Applewhite strokes the air and mouths the word martini at me, winks. The hit of molly rushes in. I feel like a rabbit right then and wag my tail […]

In the attic where we sleep we are wistful. In the attic trapped rats rot in crawl spaces behind walls. In the attic we shred tired wallpaper into jagged angles, all knives and mountains. In the attic we find pennies from the twenties. In the attic we know a lady died—broke a hip and wasn’t found […]

In the second-hand shop, Martin looks again at the porcelain doll. It has blue Murano glass eyes, and real hair. He hands the doll to the shopkeeper, who points at the “no refunds” sign behind him. Martin shakes his head, says it doesn’t matter. At home, Martin’s footsteps echo on the hardwood floor. He can […]

One day before his surfing lesson my son noticed the floating corpse of a seagull. Said that he’d try and save it but it was already dead. He couldn’t stop shivering in the car after his lesson that day, so I cranked up the Steely Dan, and promised him we were almost home, even though […]

This much was certain—because of the mess it left, the bear had been eating from a dumpster behind the Rib House just before it was electrocuted. The bus boys claimed it climbed the power pole because it was frightened by a dog. “The dog was still hanging around,” they told me. “That black lab. What […]