Three or four days later I found her note and phoned Debra. She said, “Come on over.” She gave me the directions to Playa del Rey and I drove over. She had a small rented house with a f...

the problem, of course, isn’t the… it’s the living parts which make up the Dem… the next person you pass on the st… multiply

up in northern California he stood in the pulpit and had been reading for some time he had been reading poems about nature and the goodness

I have a saying, “the tough ones a… back.” but Vera was kinder than most, and so I was surprised when she arrived that night

yes, it’s dark in here. can’t open the door. can’t open the jam lid. can’t find a pair of socks that ma… was born in Andernach in 1920 and…

in junior high school Big Max was a problem. we’d be sitting during lunch hour eating our peanut butter sandwiche… and potato chips.

The funeral was to be at 10:30 a.m. but it was already hot. I had on a cheap black suit, bought and fitted in a rush. It was my first new suit in years. I had located the son. We drove ...

schoolgirls in pantyhose sitting on bus stop benches looking tired at 13 with their raspberry lipstick. it’s hot in the sun

the schoolyard was a horror show:… freaks the beatings up against the wire f… our schoolmates watching glad that they were not the victim…

at North Avenue 21 drunk tank you… there was always some guy who woul… way to the crapper and then you would curse him good,… he would know enough to either be…

he’s a runt he snarls and scratches chases cars groans in his sleep and has a perfect star above each…

Christmas eve, alone, in a motel room down the coast near the Pacific— hear it?

There were continual fights. The teachers didn’t seem to know anything about them. And there was always trouble when it rained. Any boy who brought an umbrella to school or wore a rainc...