The True Sentence

2012-03-16T07:23:00.000-04:00

The wild wind howled that night sounding like the Earth had cracked in two and the damned were singing a chorus from the darkest depths of Hell.

2012-03-15T07:19:00.003-04:00

"Just wait," wheezed the old man at the young couple sitting at the next bench.

2012-03-14T07:25:00.001-04:00

The neon sign reflected off the bottles behind the bar.

2012-03-13T07:13:00.000-04:00

She thought of herself as a juggler who was constantly having new balls, some large, some small, thrown at her from several directions, forcing her to constantly scan the horizon as she kept them aloft.

2012-03-13T07:09:00.002-04:00

"I'll be sure to say a prayer for your little boy tonight," said the man with the knife, a cold smile creeping across his thin lips.

2012-03-11T00:37:00.000-05:00

"I swore I wasn't going to cry," said Sylvia as she stood before her yoga class, "but the beach walk was so beautiful."

2012-03-10T07:54:00.001-05:00

Louise felt the cold ice crystals in her hair that had floated in through the porthole and wondered where it could possibly have come from until they heard the crash.

2012-03-09T07:23:00.001-05:00

I watched her walk across the field, her wind-whipped dress outlining her body, her arm shielding her eyes.

2012-03-08T07:06:00.000-05:00

The clouds hid the moon like a veil across the face of a carnival Tarot card reader.

2012-03-07T07:26:00.001-05:00

"I'm often wrong and never imitated," said the Count proudly, and while it seemed to make sense at the time, over the years I have often wondered exactly what he meant.

2012-03-06T07:24:00.001-05:00

Darius' fear grew incrementally with the passing of each of the watch's second hand.

2012-03-05T07:08:00.001-05:00

The men scattered back into the woods, their objective all but forgotten.

2012-03-04T16:17:00.001-05:00

"He could make that horn moan like a Baptist preacher," the old man recalled.

2012-03-03T10:53:00.001-05:00

Her imagination was like a cannonball careening.

2012-03-02T07:38:00.000-05:00

A copse of tangled vines hid them within the wild wood.

2012-03-01T07:31:00.003-05:00

The desiccated remains were topped by a pompador as sleek and full as it was on the day Elvis died, leading many to agitate for sainthood for the King.

2012-02-29T07:01:00.004-05:00

"The past is dead, the present bleak and future even more so," thought Mayor Simms as he walked around town.

2012-02-28T07:05:00.001-05:00

The new shoots shown through the dead and yellow grass.

2012-02-27T06:55:00.002-05:00

In the town of Duplicity, Texas, nothing was as it seemed.

2012-02-26T08:42:00.000-05:00

Puzzled by life, Fredric obsessed about his eventual death.

2012-02-25T08:48:00.001-05:00

The Cheshire Cat moon gave little light.

2012-02-24T07:39:00.000-05:00

Her dreams of revenge began to bleed into her waking life.

2012-02-23T07:13:00.000-05:00

As Josiah grew older he became less tolerant of ignorance and lassitude, especially when found in his kin.

2012-02-22T12:16:00.000-05:00

The carnival's troubles began when the fat woman act joined forces with the "Flying Wazowskis"

2012-02-22T12:12:00.000-05:00

They sniped from the edges, sad and sullen halfwits with nothing but time on their hands.

2012-02-20T15:50:00.000-05:00

Tangerine's diet of speed and ice cream resulted in a go go dancing style that many of the club's customers found off-putting.

2012-02-20T15:48:00.000-05:00

The pigeon carried a warning.

2012-02-18T18:19:00.001-05:00

The taste of the salt-sea air stirred memories of his youth.

2012-02-18T18:17:00.000-05:00

The shadows lengthened across the back porch as she sat rocking.

2012-02-16T12:44:00.000-05:00

The city was so overtly fake that it distorted one's idea of beauty.

2012-02-16T12:43:00.001-05:00

She was afraid of tumbleweeds, believing they were both animate and malevolent.

2012-02-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

Standing at the edge of the massive falls, Stan, for the first time in his life, decided there must be a God.

2012-02-13T07:29:00.000-05:00

Anything went at the Turncoats and Troubadours Tavern.

2012-02-12T09:54:00.000-05:00

Luella felt the world was against her, when in truth she was her own worst enemy.

2012-02-11T08:07:00.000-05:00

Luke felt he got short shrift from his partner in their last long grift.

2012-02-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

The railway station was deserted except for a man in a rumpled suit who stared at me with unbridled hatred.

2012-02-09T07:03:00.000-05:00

The duelist always insisted on 200 paces with derringers, thus mitigating the chance of being killed.

2012-02-08T07:37:00.000-05:00

When the storm slammed into the city the only ones on the streets were the cops, coke dealers and snow plows.

2012-02-07T07:23:00.000-05:00

He won the election on one factor: his hair was perfect.

2012-02-06T07:11:00.000-05:00

Intricate diagrams seemed necessary to keep up with her various love affairs.

2012-02-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

She set me up like a game of 10 pins and knocked me down.

2012-02-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

"Good luck," he laughed as he began shoveling the dirt on top of Drake.

2012-02-03T07:25:00.000-05:00

The state department felt like a Byzantine palace, with backstabbing and intrigue taken to new heights.

2012-02-02T07:23:00.000-05:00

His bland expression seemed incongruous with the gun in his hand.

2012-02-01T07:21:00.000-05:00

"These slack-jawed yokels won't know what hit em," said Red a little too loudly as he and Duff entered the village, their wagon loaded down with second-rate tools and near-toxic patent medicine.

2012-01-31T07:24:00.000-05:00

The PR men tried their best to spin the candidate's coke snorting and prostitute procuring habits into a pro small business stance.

2012-01-30T07:03:00.000-05:00

Seth was as sober as a judge at his sentencing, but the judge was drunk.

2012-01-29T09:44:00.000-05:00

Turner hoped they all lived to regret underestimating him.

2012-01-28T09:07:00.000-05:00

Priscilla felt happiest in the presence of mirrors and admirers.

2012-01-27T07:09:00.000-05:00

He could feel hatred and blood-lust emanating from the gathering crowd.

2012-01-26T07:19:00.000-05:00

The cherry bomb in the toilet was the only topic of conversation in the teacher's lounge, superseding discussions on the school's deplorable test scores.

2012-01-25T07:13:00.000-05:00

Always fastidious, Burt could not stand the thought of visiting his in-laws with their little piles of clutter found throughout the house.

2012-01-24T07:20:00.000-05:00

The whole city smelled like burned circuitry.

2012-01-23T07:18:00.000-05:00

In the no-man's land between the high life and oblivion Phil made his home.

2012-01-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

The turncoat turnkey helped the prisoners escape only to stop them just outside the gates, guaranteeing a promotion and his picture in the paper.

2012-01-21T09:21:00.000-05:00

She stole his heart along with all his valuables.

2012-01-20T07:31:00.000-05:00

"The world went into the crapper when they introduced the leisure suit," the haberdasher insisted.

2012-01-19T07:10:00.000-05:00

An inveterate tinkerer, the doctor discovered both a way to save millions of people through an innovative food production method, as well as a new chemical to wipe those same millions out with a single dose.

2012-01-18T07:06:00.000-05:00

The wind-whipped willows looked like women waiting for their seafaring husbands to return home.

2012-01-17T07:12:00.000-05:00

Trent had a hard time staying in the moment, a habit that often led to his getting lost.

2012-01-16T07:31:00.000-05:00

The pestilence spread through the village with such rapidity that after the first day there was no one well enough to care for the sick and dying.

2012-01-15T09:10:00.000-05:00

Off skylarking they did not hear the approaching troops.

2012-01-14T08:30:00.000-05:00

The realization hit Todd hard: I hate my child.

2012-01-13T07:25:00.000-05:00

It wasn't the landslide defeat at the polls that hurt, but rather that his own mother voted against him.

2012-01-12T07:28:00.000-05:00

They gallantly galloped straight into the trap.

2012-01-12T07:25:00.000-05:00

Through the blinding snow they saw their rival's flag and knew all the suffering was for naught.

2012-01-10T07:16:00.000-05:00

All she wanted was for her husband's lies to stop, an impossibility during campaign season.

2012-01-09T08:55:00.000-05:00

His body was soft and baby-like, but his eyes betrayed his true nature.

2012-01-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

"Getting at the truth is a hard thing," McDermot told me over coffee, "and the best we can do is hold on to the bull's tail and see where that beast drags us."

2012-01-07T08:17:00.000-05:00

All the gizmos and whirligigs of modern times could not stop the inevitable moment of impact between Brian and the cow that slipped her bounds and stood in the middle of the darkened road.

2012-01-06T07:14:00.000-05:00

He went off his diet in a blaze of Ho Hos, Twinkies and Moon Pies.

2012-01-05T07:27:00.000-05:00

They rolled up the driveway with the lights off, cut the engine and waited.

2012-01-04T07:08:00.000-05:00

As the temperature plummeted the petty crime rose, committed by men with hopes of getting a warm place to stay until spring.

2012-01-03T07:28:00.000-05:00

"In the end it comes down to dumb luck," thought Dawn as her car careened down the embankment.

2012-01-02T09:19:00.000-05:00

Lance spent the day nursing a hangover, watching the petals of the lilies on his mantle slowly open up.

2012-01-01T09:58:00.000-05:00

It came to him in a dream, a talisman for the second half of his life: "Let mortality be your guide."

2011-12-31T08:31:00.000-05:00

Jack's father owned the city's biggest and best bar, the nerve center for deal-making, and as Jack grew older his penchant for intelligence gathering led him to a job with tne feds.

2011-12-30T07:05:00.000-05:00

The world was plunged into darkness, not by some divine machination, but by the hand of man.

2011-12-29T07:19:00.000-05:00

The old songs still haunted his memory, the words now out of reach, but the melodies — like a low, howling wind through the trees — remained.

2011-12-28T07:21:00.000-05:00

Months later the river mud still clung to the streets and the sound of construction could be heard along the banks.

2011-12-27T07:09:00.000-05:00

The town's residents had decided, seemingly on a whim one winter morning, electric power was wrought by the Devil and had it outlawed, along with books, cars and chewing gum.

2011-12-26T08:28:00.000-05:00

The floor was a sea of wrapping paper, packing peanuts and boxes.

2011-12-25T12:10:00.001-05:00

Their eyes were as bright as the lights on the tree that morning.

2011-12-24T08:49:00.000-05:00

"What at first I took for a zest for life turned out to be mental illness," said Zip with a sigh as he told me about his ex.

2011-12-23T07:14:00.000-05:00

Smith got to where he was through hard work, pluck, determination and his family's deep pockets and worldwide connections.

2011-12-22T07:15:00.000-05:00

The pool of messengers was dwindling due to the king's penchant for killing them whenever bad news came his way.

2011-12-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

The news was all bad, which was good (for the ratings).

2011-12-20T07:17:00.000-05:00

The party was over, the floor littered with cigarette butts, empty bottles and the wayward friends too drunk to go anywhere but to sleep.

2011-12-19T07:34:00.000-05:00

Cue the marching band.

2011-12-19T07:23:00.000-05:00

On Josiah's 99th birthday he dragged out a ladder, made it onto the roof and cleaned the gutters with a satisfied sigh, finally able to check it off his to do list.

2011-12-17T08:05:00.000-05:00

The baton was tapped, his arms raised and with an audible intake of breath they knew it was time to begin again.

2011-12-16T07:36:00.000-05:00

Clyde was growing weary of Bonnie's back-seat driving, which had extended into how he handled the bank robberies.

2011-12-15T07:05:00.000-05:00

S. woke up to a face he didn't recognize as his own.

2011-12-14T07:18:00.000-05:00

The old painter could barely pick up a brush, but managed to retain his power when it hit the canvas.

2011-12-13T07:21:00.000-05:00

The coroner's job was harder when it involved a friend.

2011-12-12T08:54:00.000-05:00

The city was slowly collapsing in on itself in a rust-belt, pain-killer induced, teen pregnancy riddled vortex.

2011-12-11T08:49:00.000-05:00

Jody often wondered how he went from MIT wunderkind to second-tier pornographer, but believed it may have been the pharmaceuticals.

2011-12-10T09:05:00.000-05:00

The hot rod remained where Raymond left it before shipping out.

2011-12-09T07:16:00.000-05:00

The escalation of hostilities began slowly, but by spring the neighbors upped the stakes by hiring crooked land surveyors, hack lawyers and, eventually, strong-arm men.

2011-12-08T07:27:00.000-05:00

Where once sailors and prostitutes cavorted there was now just a bramble-covered spit of land jutting into the brown and churning river.