Sideburns; what makes a man grow sideburns? Does he look in the mirror one morning and think; "Hmmm despite the sloping brow and the eye ridges I don't quite look Cro-Magnon enough. What I need is redundant facial hair that will lower my perceived IQ and give my...
I don't realise I have dozed until one of them moves. It's Nathan under my arm, my arm across his shoulders, Nathan up beside me on the pillows. His eyes are closed, sleeping, so I think, in his sleep nuzzling my side just below my breast, with his lips. It's a cosy...
It began with unspoken consent, an innocent suggestion to share a room for a cool night in the middle of June. We swerved drunkenly through the city, eyes squinting upward for a vacancy sign. My girlfriend wanted to go home, so I left her on the street corner next to...
"My head hurts," whined Aryeh miserably, tugging his carefully ringletted side locks straight and furrowing his pale brow. The candlelight turned his clear, bright features into golden planes and shadows. "Stop pulling your peyos! We've almost finished the chapter on...
"Alfred, is everything set?" "Yes sir. I trust you will find everything to your liking." "Excellent. Send out the signal, if you would, Alfred." "Very good, sir." Alfred bowed and left to attend to his task. Bruce Wayne knocked back the last of his Glenfiddich 40...
"But what if it happened to you, Sybil?" I said. "What if the space men took you into their saucer and flew you to their home planet, or the moon? Imagine if you looked out the window and saw the earth!" "I'd wave," Sybil said. She was driving, wearing cat's-eye...
I rest my head on my forearm and stare up at the stars, wondering if anything out there in the heavens can compare to this. The campfire throws shadows on the canyon wall. I watch the darkly magnified pantomime of Billy's bent back and curly head bobbing between my...
She walks along the barren hall. There is no sound. Fluorescent lights flicker. She tries one door, then another but all are locked. Panic rises in her gut. On and on down the hall, each door refuses to yield. "Murrrp?" She looks down into the bright green eyes of a...
Gunnar Torvaldson rode in his cutter, his horse pulling with its head down against the combined weight of sleigh and occupant. Lamps swung on its sides. He watched the horse's haunches rise and fall, the crystalline air blowing from its nostrils. It was mid-December,...
"Damn! I used to jimmy this thing all the time. Where's the flashlight?" I glanced over my shoulder at the road, then back to Guy's shape hunched in front of the door. "I think the battery's dead." "Don't chicken out now, Maur," Guy said, teeth gritted from cold and...