Giving Thanks
Hot: I am thankful for my friends, I am thankful for my family. I am thankful for love and hate; for reverence and shame; for belly laughs and tears; for wonder and confusion; for frustration and insight; for sentience in the face of ridiculous odds. I am thankful for Butterfingers, Diet Coke and cheeseburgers; for the clothes [...]

Sweetness
Hot: “Watch, watch, Sang.” I’m watching, Mrs. Scott, but all I see are men standing and falling down in the middle of a muddy field. What kind of game is this? Don’t those guys in stripe know how annoying their whistles are? Do they have to blow them so much? Why are we sitting on these cold splintered [...]

Ghost of Christmas Past
Hot: “What is the problem?” I asked. “She’s getting all crazy about this,” said Chuck. “And we don’t have the money for this. Table cloths, flowers and place settings… ugh.” “Why don’t you get this by now?” I asked. “Get what?” “Everyone has a holiday. Especially every woman. It’s the holiday they gear up for, it’s the holiday that takes [...]

Goodbye, Blue Sky
Hot: “Why don’t we go play Atari at your house?” I asked. Bill nodded, “Yeah, we could do that.” “That sounds cool,” said Barry. “You have Asteroids, right?” “It came with it,” replied Bill. We strolled down MaCay Avenue under a cloudless sky. Video games, fresh brownies, the smell of fireplaces and settling winter all around us, shattering Bill’s record [...]

Cheesy Rider
Hot: “Why do you ride it like that?” “My feet can’t reach the pedals,” I replied. Michael stared at me with disapproval. He was getting tired of my presence. Tired of me lingering, of being in his life. He didn’t need a new friend. He definitely didn’t need a hayseed from the old country, speaking broken English and following [...]