Miller Time

UNITED STATES—Written on an envelope in dad’s barely readable, backward slanting script that, “Only to be opened in case of my death.” “Well.” Denise said to her oldest. “Well, what?” answered Rusty. “Let’s do it.” They proceeded to violate a trust, curiosity got the better of them after having been delivered this piece of mail by the patriarch himself. They disobeyed his will...

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,...

UNITED STATES—When a fatality as final and conflated as that which occurs, a void descends upon a family. A home, a blank wall which gets sealed with a photo of the one who was taken. There will be a wall festooned with many photos from the football fields and the plantation hot springs, and especially those polished studio photographs...

UNITED STATES—"Are you going to stay the night?" says the mother. Hers is the last bed in the room that has a light on over the headboard of the hospital bed. "Don't go changing the subject," says the son. "I didn't know there was a subject," the mother groans. "Can you do something about my head, so it can get comfortable?" "The...

UNITED STATES—February 10, 1992, I said goodbye to Los Angeles. “The Strawberry Butterfly,” the screenplay that had grown from the chrysalis of “The Persecuted,” had not sold, but I had faith in it and Everett Lewis’ belief in it. Three years had come full circle. It was surely time for me to move on, and just as surely, when...

UNITED STATES—This was the best year of my life. I shall make no feeble attempt to hang onto the unhangable and give up any pretense of clinging to a past even before the calendar relinquishes the year’s final dates. Nor shall I bore you with why this was the best year for me (you and I are so selfish...

UNITED STATES—Part of the mystique of Cafe Om was for people to gather at this hole in the wall and know people by face and remain ignorant of their resume. Which goes contrary to what is usually so up front here when it comes to small talk: what project are you doing? What is your goal? There’s something nice about...

UNITED STATES—A good pandemic is not being wasted: it is sending science racing for answers and fresh ideas are not only being heard, but being implemented. For instance, on busy thoroughfares like Sunset with heavy foot traffic, pedestrian crosswalk buttons were suddenly phased out. Something I'd been dreaming about, especially as in recent times, as you'd have groups of...

UNITED STATES—It was the longest elevator ride I have ever spent, creeping from one floor to the next. We boarded the elevator garage level at the Avalon Trader Joe’s. An alarm was ringing as we slipped in the open elevator, where a sour-faced man and woman flanked an empty grocery cart. My daughter looked over at them and said, “Is the...

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...