Pick up your coffee and grab your book, reserving a pinky to hook the handle of your water tumbler. Step outside. Remember to invite the dog before closing the door behind you. Or, better …

Being the Thanksgiving holiday, people were off work, mostly, mostly with their families. Being an important week for consumerism too, I worked odd hours—I was up at 6:00 am for the go-ahead to send …

For the better part of an hour, a French, Muslim, Moroccan man had been massaging my head with surprising coordination and persistence. His fingers were strong, but the kneading mostly gentle, juxtaposing the pair …

April woke abruptly to the sound of marvelous drums and horns, their school’s percussion-inflected fight song overwhelming the walls and screaming into her room from underneath the crack in the door. The room still …

The hydraulic arms of a garbage truck heave and press in slow undulation, lifting a dumpster and slamming it to the ground. My neighbors a building over are having a conversation in Tagalog, speaking …