Feature Stories
I was in first grade, my mom told me that I ’d been invited to play at Jenny’s house and that after school I should take the bus as usual but get off with Jenny. …
"....and there's his scrotum. It's a boy." As the doctor said this and pointed an arrow labeled "boy" at the white dot on the ultrasound, a wave of pride hit me. Yes, I admit to …
A half dozen Indians stood pointing hoses from which I could see no water escaping — they looked like a mime troupe parodying a fire brigade. One man threw down his hose and began stomping a circle around himself.
"Talk to him," my wife commands, and I obey. I bend down, place my mouth against her belly, and say hello to my son, whose ears are fully developed by now. I tell him that …
The first night I lay awake listening to jungle noises—night birds, a laughing burro, strange swishes that made me picture Tarzan riding a vine from tree to tree, and the cackles of stoned people.
Over lunch, Tony’s family debated the benefits of Chicago and San Diego. Mrs. Russo, Tony, and his sister preferred Chicago. Mr. Russo claimed he would have stayed out West except for the family’s nagging.
“Look what’s changed in the last two months. Eric died. We barely escaped a nuclear war. By June, Kennedy might attack Cuba, and the Russians could retaliate by invading Hollywood. Bonanza could be in Russian.”
Outside the windows, chimes touch together. They ring exactly as they did when someone lived here, when Blue Willow china was set on the table and cows were milked in the barn.
Although dachshund owners may not say so to acquaintances, most of us sleep with our dogs. They, after all, were bred to burrow and take naturally to quilts and comforters.
On the second floor is a character I recognize. I’ve seen this individual bicycling around town, along Pacific Coast Highway, and in Ocean Beach. Today this person is reading an instructional book on Mandarin Chinese.
Was it a coincidence this summer when 8000 tilapia-loving pelicans, including the endangered brown pelican, suddenly died on the beaches of the Salton Sea, the biggest pelican die-off in recorded U.S. history?
"Hi, I'm Herman Irwin, the book man. I acquire books. I sort them and I bring them to the people who can appreciate them. I'm in jails, prisons, literacy groups for children, seniors, people in …
I am teaching at a private school. Like many such, it has taken over a large country estate — both grounds and house. Although there is a separate classroom building, dining room, and several dormitories, …
My Lower East Side apartment is cramped, smelly, and airless. It radiates the aura of years of abuse suffered patiently, of rooms that have long since lost all hope. However, these do face out the …
We keep a stereo viewer on the mantel, an antique pair of lenses set in wood so long ago that the velvet around the tin visor has worn away where it touches my temples. The …
A few hours before dawn a bedside phone woke my wife and me. My older son Nicholas, nine, was at a lakeside summer camp in Vermont. This was many years ago, but the subsequent conversation …