Miller Time

UNITED STATES—Five long years without a vacation. Yeah, there were trips to visit the grandparents—famiy trips—but they didn’t count as a real vacation. In Cahuenga Springs, Ben slept on that concrete-sack futon on the floor like he hadn’t slept in five years. No dreams. The dream started Sunday morning when his friend’s mom, who’d insisted they stay overnight, made coffee...

UNITED STATES—A striking invitation was sent out by Miriam, the girlfriend of Dave America who engineered the trip to Madrid to present our bilingual anthology, "80 mph." When we arrived at the literary bar in the Malasana neighborhood Thursday night, we were greeted by a mood different from that which met us at Tuesday night's story reading. The place...

UNITED STATES—It was Summer Solstice when I arrived and enjoyed the first fruits of accidental tourism. I had been prepared to take my Euros and invest in a ride on the Metro, directly to Madrid, where there no concrete plans yet for a place to stay. But instead, at the last minute, a Spanish friend in Los Angeles arranged for...

UNITED STATES—I did something out of character when I saw the White man chase the Black man into the gutter and out of sight behind the regal truck cab. I broke into a run to see what was going on. Not out of morbid curiosity, mind you. My run was motivated by concern that a person here might be...

UNITED STATES—“Just trying to help you guys,” Reed retorted to the manager who had squirreled him into a kitchen that from the looks of things would be lucky to get a C- health rating. “I’ve never seen so many people here. I tried to get research fresh and reliable, but the most I could find were some old dog-eared...

UNITED STATES—Oh yes, Beverly Hills at night. To my delight, based on an exhaustive sampling of three people encountered walking an a recent Friday night, there predominates a single category of walker: the tipsy kind. In contrast, the people I have encountered during my morning walks break down into three main categories, and they reinforce a harsher vision of humanity: --The...

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—"The silence filtered through charcoal silence. I want to let it all out..." "Well this forced the issue, something like the fall had to happen. And now it's bringing everything out into the open." "Like the fact that you're an embezzler...? Davy glares at her. "Can't you tell when I'm kidding?" "Freud said there are no jokes." "That may be true. Have you ever...

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—As the youngest of his children prepared to leave the nest—not tomorrow or the next day, but inevitably it would happen—the old vices came back, and a few new ones. The smoking (tobacco mostly) and drinking. Who's fooling whom? Kids see a lot now. In the middle school someone had to call 911 because a kid had overdosed...