Glimmer Train Stories, #95

John Thornton Williams
Darling, Keith, the Subway Girl, and Jumping Joe Henry
Darling kept his head down. Probably none of those girls had been in that fraternity basement last night, where he'd fought another homeless man for a fifth of liquor, but he didn't want to take the chance.

Claire Luchette
Full
In New York, he shows you the Angel of Bethesda in Central Park, and, with gusto and exaggerated sibilance, he recites the final monologue in Angels in America. "The world only spins forward, we will be citizens. The time has come."

Tamar Jacobs
The Wall Between
Her mother thought fish was a life-extending food (unlike red meat, a life-diminishing one), and so they ate it whenever there was money.

Michael Varga
Chad Erupts in Strife
Chad was now part of the family narrative, and there was no telling how the story would end.

Aaron Guest
The Hecklers
"If only life was being recorded," he said at Elliot's one night before the AA meeting. "Then you'd know when the blitz was coming. I mean, you could at least know, from previous plays, that the blitz was coming."

Vera Kurian
The Bleeding Room
They start to argue, as usual, and I've gotten so used to them that I almost find it easier to concentrate, with all the noise.

Aja Gabel
Necessary Animals
The trees are so close together in those woods that they look like tall old men leaning together, alive, whispering.

S.A. Rivkin
How to Survive a Non-Funeral
It was an all-family affair, and I couldn't understand why I was even permitted. I couldn't think of a single thing to say to the dying man.

Emily McKay
Affording to Lose
I caught myself wide awake and thinking, "I feel ... amazing," and then realized, "No, Caroline. That sentiment does not apply."

Andrew Roe
A Matter of Twenty-Four Hours
The right person would make all the difference. The right person would save him. And much time and effort and energy had been wasted over the years because of this belief.

Lee Conell
The Afterlife of Turtles
On good days we talk about science fiction and soup. On bad days we talk about turtle heaven and hell.

Jonathan Lethem
Interview by David Naimon
These things are always fragile. We pass through them. Neighborhoods, families, movements. And we are struck by them. They seem to be a vision of a world that we want to stay inside but it can't sustain.

Micah Nathan
In Search of Absolutely Nothing
"I thought Mayans invented the zero," Tosh said. "How can anyone invent the zero?" Katherine asked.