J.V.

Doctor Harlem Smith had been teaching literature at the college since Falstaff’s first fart and had seen the fading embers of middle age doused with the ice-water of time, trod into a gritty gray paste, and tracked onto the living room rug. He blamed time’s darlings, the young, and watched for opportunities to even the…

The cellar was pitch black. Flicking on an industrial strength flashlight, Little Miss Kneesocks aimed it at a small, odd-looking door, a little less than waist-high off the ground. Illuminating the floor in front of her, she stepped gingerly over to the little door and gave the handle a wiggle. After a bit of seducing,…

In solidarity with the victims of American imperialism, Tokyo Roz wore the black pajamas and conical bamboo hat of a Viet Cong irregular. Round faced and pale, she ran the local franchise of “The Revolution®”and was addressing passersby with a megaphone. “Student strike! Join the student strike! Big rally tomorrow night!” If Roz had been…

Sally Fisk glared at the crowd. “I’ve got news for you,” she declared, “America’s not the good guys any more. Good guys don’t invade sovereign nations. It’s that simple.” “But things aren’t that simple,” said Cadet Titzenboer. “Freedom isn’t free.” “How does it make you free to kill a bunch of foreigners who have no…

As she kisses, Adelle runs her fingertips over my face, my back, my arms. Her lips find nerve centers overlooked by all the medical books, and at her stimulus, they burst into response like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Her touch is the brush of a butterfly’s wing; her scent, the lilac’s breath; her…

At the face-off marker, Vavolano reached back with his right foot and kicked at the turf four or five times with his front cleats, digging himself a little trench. Then he did the same with his left, but not so far back. His face-off stance was all wrong. Instead of squatting down, feet even and…