Category Archives: Hardboiled

Jimmy, Pummeled

Jimmy sat on his dad’s collapsing, threadbare futon, watching some stupid dancing shit on the TV. He felt restless. He wanted to fight someone. He wanted to get smashed in the face and battered to within an inch of his life. It was an odd urge, he realized, but he insisted that he was notContinue reading “Jimmy, Pummeled”

Manny’s Cancer

Manny was sure his cancer was related to the microwave oven at the Blue Ox Steakhouse. He’d worked in front of it for almost ten years. It had been manufactured in the early 80s and he stood with his unprotected head right next to it from 1994 to 2004. There was a pinhole in theContinue reading “Manny’s Cancer”

Dead in a Dump Somewhere

Eddie Yettian was dead, maybe. You could never tell with that guy. He was always getting lost,  going missing. Living on the existential precipice, as it were. He didn’t feel alive unless he was on the precarious edge of death.  He always came back, though. Bedraggled, quieted, neutered or haunted, but back. And he alwaysContinue reading “Dead in a Dump Somewhere”

Heaven Always Has Room

Wish List: I once worked with a tall drink of water named Christopher J. McSpinch. I’ll always remember that unusual name. He was a nice, polite guy and I liked him. We worked for a company called Intelillink Communications. Don’t bother looking it up, it’s long gone. It was merged into oblivion.  My duties includedContinue reading “Heaven Always Has Room”

The Crooner

The Crooner sat alone in his dressing room. He’d draped an old, stained tablecloth over the mirror and had unscrewed most of the light-bulbs around the frame. Dressing room lights were always too bright and the mirrors captured too many hard memories. He wore his life on his face. He lifted a pint of whiskeyContinue reading “The Crooner”

Violets and Gasoline

It started before the stabbing began. Paleontologists were puzzled by the ancient signs of aberrant behavior they discovered in the underwater tunnels but they had to follow the fossil evidence no matter the cost to humanity’s dubious reputation. Fresh scuba gear was distributed like missionary medicine to the five finalists. Then it was time toContinue reading “Violets and Gasoline”

Barbara Payton at the Purple Dandelion

And a disembodied narrator says:  He was in an LA club called The Purple Dandelion. It was 1967. Longhairs were dancing to the elastic music of The Chocolate Watch Band. He was sitting at the bar between a grubby little man who smelled of the street and Barbara Payton, who smelled of the street andContinue reading “Barbara Payton at the Purple Dandelion”