Miller Time

UNITED STATES—The months went by. The days got shorter and colder. There Robbie sat alongside Rolf, the giant black schnauzer, at the outdoor patio table threatened by cold and icy rain. Robbie was trembling under his cardigan sweater. The warm and humid breath from the good old dog's muzzle warmed the stiff joints in his fingers. It was terrifically...

UNITED STATES—Mary Reno once lived in cool, air-conditioned movie theaters. It corresponded to a period of unrequited loneliness and early need. She was young, not yet out of high school. Mother and father were still together, and then father would leave. He would not see her wear a graduation robe. Mother always explained that he had gone to heaven....

UNITED STATES—Then the boy got up and reflexively pulled down his shirt, so it covered his open fly. He peered out the window onto the gray street and flipped around the CLOSED sign. The bolt in the door made a solid clunking sound as it engaged with the doorframe. Mary pulled herself upright, grasping on of the cold black...

UNITED STATES—A blistering wind was coming through the glass and concrete towers. It rustled a flag at three-quarters mast. Just before reaching the lower echelons and stirred the hairs on Mary's natural fright wig, the breeze ran out of steam. The stifling stagnation the ruled the city like a wasted metaphor. Mary saw a way out. There it was before...

UNITED STATES—Mary Reno hurried away from the stall in the Swap Meet, that boasted the sign "We buy gold." The toothy smile of the Mongolian woman was seared in the back of Mary's cranium. In her ears echoed the enthusiastic decree, FAKE...! She was at the end of her rope. There'd be some comfort in knowing there was a...

UNITED STATES—They had it all wrong. They had it backwards. Suicide is considered a weakness, and even a cowardly act. Balderdash, if I may step in. The fact is: a healthy person may entertain the idea of self-slaughter: a world without me at least once a day. It is humble preparation us for what things may be. Sooner or...

UNITED STATES—Mary Reno awoke with a violent start. Fears swooped down and crowded in like crows. Her fears were flakes of pepper that could never totally obliterate the snowbank brightness of the moment. Her thoughts and hopes we're tangled as the dry leaves that clotted the gutters. She gasped. It started her swollen feet moving again. One swollen foot trudged...

UNITED STATES—The fingers of the bearded guy in the driver's seat fondled the gold chain. Mary Reno's heart clenched. She stood, knees trembling in the gutter. Mary blurted out, "The chain means a lot to me. My dog found that." The guy's nervous hands and eyes kept probing the gold chain. He let out a sigh. "And I lost my dog,"...

UNITED STATES—Mary Reno twirled her heels on the baking sidewalk. She was still smarting from the loss of the figs.  Yes, she was. Add to that the nagging hunch that something else was wrong. Mary had lost the bundle that had her money folded up in one corner. A coolness pervaded her toes through the open toes of her...

UNITED STATES—Mary Reno stopped and stared at the fig bush. It looked more like a tree now that it had been severely hacked since Mary first saw it a few days ago and was filled by anticipation for ripened figs. She was crestfallen. All the bulbs from the fig branches about to turn purple-black had  been pruned away, and all...