Last Bender

Bryson peered through the scope and watched the fine rain beat down on ponchos. The enlarged faces and bodies of people entered the building. “Might as well hit them all,” she said.
There was a series of puffs and she watched them flinch slightly as the tiny darts struck their necks. Boyle put down the rifle [...]

After about twenty minutes of actual sleep, Felix awoke. He lay in bed looking up at the lights as they intensified into synthetic morning sun. There were things to do but he had no firm sense of them yet and lay there for a few moments free of any memory of what had happened. He [...]

Peter Nguyen lived with his boyfriend Moises Cruz and their friend and former lover Promethea Donne, in a studio apartment in a 25story glass and ceramic building on the corner of 40th and Eighth. It was a run down building in a bad area but it was cheap, not unimportant to three unemployed actors working [...]

Hours before the others awoke Felix could no longer stand pretending to sleep but was afraid to awaken them by getting up. Weak sun filtered by the blinds filled the room. He watched them snore quietly away and took On the Road from his bag but there wasn’t enough light to read easily and his [...]

Felix stood outside of Max Mbeke’s office with a pit in his stomach. All the way there his fantasies of vengeance had intensified. He would have his day in court, with a jury and a judge and lawyers. The executives and doctors would be made to confess what they had done. He would prepare for [...]

Veronica would not let him alone. He couldn’t stand another minute of it. There was no respite. Insects, birds and even rats turned to look at him, messengers from the other world, spectres of her wayward spirit sent to bring him back. His resolve to scatter her ashes came and went by the day, by [...]

Promethea had an audition before work. She and Felix stood on the street in front of a vacant lot. The weeds in the lot were broken and yellow. They stood on guard. There were dogs living in the building behind the lot. Even in the day one might come suddenly upon them.
“I’m all wrong for [...]

Felix came to a broad, fast river. The far shore glowed in the low sunlight, a deep dark red, and on the near bank stands of plane trees shivered in the breeze. He had come there through a quiet, autumnal oak wood that smelled strongly of mushrooms, of fallen leaves and decomposing bark. A soft [...]

86th and Lex was as close as they could get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was early evening. A few grim automobiles pulled up in front of the imposing old buildings, depositing men and women in overcoats with umbrellas. They walked west, to Fifth Avenue and then south a few blocks through the [...]

Sitting and laughing by the lake after a long swim he thought, if only I wasn’t alone. The sun was just above the mountains and everything was hot and still. Every now and again a cicada unwound its harsh song or a butterfly wandered in among the nearby bramble of honeysuckle. Felix dozed off and [...]