Tag: l.a.

Broken Hearts by Laird Long

Listen to this story on the podcast.

The house was in the hot part of Hollywood. The part where the sun doesn’t shine tourist-bright and pleasant, but rather hot and oppressive; the part where you’d never dream in your wildest scar-dust dreams that there was a great big, cool blue ocean only five miles away. In this part of Hollywood, people were actually punished for their sins.

The house was between a pool hall on the right and a vacant lot on the left. It was a nice house — for a midget. It was bigger than a cardboard box but smaller than a coffin.Read the rest

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Faster Than A Speeding Bullet by Sally Carpenter

Sometimes, even superheroes need to call 911.

Superman lay face down in the alley next to a Dumpster, a circle of dried blood staining his red cape. Detective Harbison gazed down at the body and decided that regular bullets could take down the Man of Steel just as well as kryptonite.

“Poor Markie!” The Latina standing beside him dug her plump fingers into her skirt pocket and pulled out a tissue. “He’s a good customer. He says, ‘Imelda makes the best coffee in town.’ Markie comes in my diner when he takes a break from work.” The alley where they stood was just behind the tiny restaurant.… Read the rest

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The High Road by Sarah M. Chen

The morning after the night before. Sometimes you’ll do just about anything to make the day more bearable, and sometimes you should have just stayed in bed.

As Jay staggered to the bathroom to take a piss, the last thing he was thinking of was his pickup truck. Why should he? It was, well who the hell knew what time it was, but it was daytime and Jay had just woken up. So obviously his first thought was smoking a bowl. It was always his first thought, but this morning he was feeling particularly crappy. His head felt like somebody hammered a nail into it and his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth.… Read the rest

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