At what precise ratio does the pH factor change from acid to base? This last clear drop pierced the surface tension, then was redefined as a lavender drop, sinking down.

Maître Susane knew she didn’t need Sharon’s energy, youth, or abilities, she knew full well that those virtues were wasted in her apartment, where there was literally nothing to do.

When my daughters turned twelve I initiated them into the mysterious powers with which women of my family line have since time immemorial been endowed.

They stand in the dark watching the cars and carport barn burn. Far below to the left, fire trucks switch up the mountain, all red flash and horn blast and echoey siren. 

I like that we don’t do the things we don’t do. I like our plans on waking, when morning slinks onto our bed like a cat of light, plans we never realize because we get up late from imagining

Last week, I finally had to put Howl Palace up for sale. Years of poor financial planning had led to this decision, and I tried to take some comfort in my agent’s belief in a buyer who might show up with an all-cash offer. My agent is a highly organized, sensible woman who grew up in Alaska—I checked—but when she advertised the listing, she failed to mention her description on the internet. “Attractively priced tear-down with plane dock and amazing lake views,” she wrote under the photo. “Investment potential.”

No joke, Tyler and Travis now have separate bedrooms. No problem, you would think, as there are four nice ones available. Still the smallest in the family, 124 retains the least large room, the one

On an invisible star high up in the dark sky a canary yellow butterfly spread its wings, revealing a bodice of intricately woven red and purple. Down this butterfly came in a graceful descent to earth.

They checked in at the hotel that A. called in his head Hotel Auschwitz, then he spent twenty minutes shitting.

Comedy was a theatrical form Paul had never pursued; he had always been more serious, a tragedian.