Miller Time

Miracle On 42nd St.

UNITED STATES—Morris still lay on the mosaic floor of the hallway. His shoes pointed to the sky; his eyes wide shut. The motionless form seemed to ratify the state of the Deville Manor, whose rooms and apartments over the last two and a half years had silently succumbed to the scampering of rats, the weaving of spiders, the colonization of...

A Miracle On 42nd St.

UNITED STATES—Out came the shotgun from behind the door. The old artist stood at the threshold and extended the barrel. His hand trembled. Gil Talbott steadied his hand just as he’d steadied it to chisel the newest statue that crouched in his garret on the top floor of DeVille Manor. This statue was a sandstone Christmas tree and, beside...

New Media

UNITED STATES—There they are again with that rustling, crackling energy on the streets. They travel in packs, little islands of smugness among us old timers; there they are shielded by a sense goofy camaraderie in the implacable gulf that springs between them and us who were here first. It would be breaking an unwritten law to hail them in...

The Gold Chain

UNITED STATES—I’m taking DeVille out for a walk or he’s taking me. I cannot tell which. We go up Cahuenga to the dog friendly market (my Jack Russell terrier/chihuahua can go in and smell where he was last time and pee). It’s kind of gross but still lovely to go to a store in comfort instead of trying to...

Scandalous Regret

UNITED STATES—Looking across a sea of white-enamel washers in the laundromat, Brendan watch the receding back of Radcovich. Brendan felt a pang at his candor in telling Radcovich about his marriage in Denmark. To his boyfriend. Why did he have to go and say that? But it was essential and true; of course he had to say it. Radcovich took...

More Scandalous

UNITED STATES—Eric Radcovich fit in, and Brendan didn't. That was how it was in college. Eric was into fitness and brought to the apartment a device that imprisoned your ankles and then you could hang upside down and develop a six-pack. Eric owned heat. That was how he came from the other apartment to live where Brendan had been...

Scandalous

UNITED STATES—Brendan Howe watched the hypnotic tumblings the drying socks and underwear through the glass circle of the dryer door. It was his first time here in the laundromat in the new neighborhood where he had moved after the divorce. Scribbling in a small spiral notebook, he sat in regimented plastic chairs, bolted to the floor. An attendant watered hanging ferns....

Cottage Chronicles: Deutsches Requiem

HOLLYWOOD—It happens when you get in a cottage courtyard and stick around long enough: somebody dies who's been here forever. It happens while the lamp is on and close enough to be heard clear as if someone was rotating a spoon in a bone-china cup. Those who keep moving on as the majority of Americans do (we move on...

Sensitive Machines

UNITED STATES—Gloria must have overheard when I spoke longingly about the enduring allure of a manual typewriter. I have been editing a volume which contains a old story written on my beloved Olivetti, and the process reflected these musings, both nostalgic and speculative, about literary technology. "Technology takes over our lives," demurred Manny the tech guy, who confirmed that Gloria,...

How It Ended

UNITED STATES—An offer from another chain store came for the drug store, and my parents welcomed it. Capitulating to one of the chains was still not the most desirable ending to 44 years of service. Then a young eager pharmacist, interested in taking over the pharmacy, reappeared. He would preserve the Johnson name, its independence and assure continuity. It seemed...