Jazme comes tearing down the stairs in her three-at-a-time headlongway whipping snarling splitting tangling her hair in the wind of her passing careless careening and never quite catching her bouncing head and flashing eye she lands with a flounce on her grandfather's knee and looking up matches smiles...

Open dawn finds you masked, Sheathed in narrow shoulder, Locked in calm, ruffled sleep. Strange day descends unheard. A roof niche, your hangar...

CARL leaned back in his chair as the class flowed out of the room. He rested his chubby fingers behind his head and stared at the jungle of papers on top of his desk. A stretched green sweater covered the rolling hill of his belly like a lawn, and somewhere on the other side were his orange and black houndstooth pants....

REBEC A always was funny. She never played with any of the kids on the block, she just stayed inside. When she did come out, she'd only play with me. She never wanted to play regular games; she liked to look at birds and trees and stuff. Mom didn't really like me to play with her. I heard mom tell Dad she was possessed. I don't know what that means, but the way mom said it, I didn't want to find out...