THE QUELLE The water bubbled up from some depth deep inside a Quelle, which gurgled warm healing water. The rectangular pool, with it’s blue and white tiles and bubbling fountain were all a fascade. The water hissed out like a snake and in the gracious cool rain, it steamed. The trip to Bad Homburg could be written up in the ugly American style guide, as a bumbling attempt to fit in. I had planned the trip for a month, but it was my first foray out in Germany alone. My attempts to buy a ticke...

The End of Summer The bus arrived at 8:45am just as Summer arrived on the curb outside her apartment. It was one of those cold clear days that cause sinus headaches. “You’re going to be late.” Matt, the bus driver said as he closed the electrical doors. “I know. Don’t remind me.” Summer raised her arm like a one armed bandit, and layered the air with Heavenly Scent cologne and then dug in her purse and applied brick-colored lipstick generously on her lips. Two grandmothers complete with blue ...

The bus arrived at 8:45am just as Summer arrived on the curb outside her apartment. It was one of those cold clear days that cause sinus headaches. “You’re going to be late.” Matt, the bus driver said as he closed the electrical doors. “I know. Don’t remind me.” Summer raised her arm like a one armed bandit, and layered the air with Heavenly Scent cologne and then dug in her purse and applied brick-colored lipstick generously on her lips. Two grandmothers complete with blue hair and carts lo...

Lahra sat on the floor by the side of her mother’s bed with her legs folded under her, staring up at her mother reading in her rocking chair from her gold trimmed bible. Lahra’s leg cramps were worse and her knees had creases in them from sitting on the pile carpet since ten o’clock. She felt thirsty and her eyes were slipping closed as if on greased hinges. Not long now, she told herself, as she leaned her shoulder into the soft mattress doing her best to prop herself up. The clock’s face wa...

The dishwashers in their torn t-shirts and filthy aprons, smoking by the dumpster behind the Burger King, called him the old cape verdian, behind his back. His still black hair combed in slivers, left little room between the severe part and his ear. He walked pulling the silver lever of his cane, back and forth, working a dip into his strides, most days, but he was not himself today. Carla was working, but didn’t hear Dom’s comment about the thermostat, as he swayed to the counter, his unstea...

As the plane’s engines pushed warming currents up the runway, Charleen Hardy looked past the two young lamp-lighters from the Chicago outreach program out the porthole window right underneath the girl’s nose ring. She saw the line of one wing, stretching out at an angle to the tip, just like a jutting ledge. Charleen worked twenty years in a Chicago shoe factory, putting sealant on the insoles of women’s shoes, the fumes had reduced the size of her breathing capacity. Inside the airplane’s ai...

“Hey, Mia what are you doing in this part of town, slumming?” Anna yelled at Mia’s SUV shading her eyes from the direct glare of the El Paso sun as Mia pulled up to the curb. She watched her friend scoot across to the passenger’s seat to climb out of the Land Rover avoiding the non-stop traffic on Sol del Ray, one of the busiest intersections in El Paso. “I’m happy to see you too,” Mia said. The chipped salmon painted façade of the fourplex attempted to approximate Mexican style adobe brick, ...

“Hey, Mia what are you doing in this part of town, slumming?” Anna yelled at Mia’s SUV shading her eyes from the direct glare of the El Paso sun as Mia pulled up to the curb. She watched her friend scoot across to the passenger’s seat to climb out of the Land Rover to avoid the non-stop traffic on Sol del Ray, one of the busiest intersections in El Paso. “I’m happy to see you too,” Mia said looking with doubt at the salmon brick façade of the fourplex which attempted to approximate Mexican st...

“Hey, Mia what are you doing in this part of town, slumming?” Anna asked shading her eyes from the direct sunlight as she saw Mia pull up. “I’m happy to see you too,” her friend said, as she scooted across to the passenger’s seat of the Land Rover to get out, avoiding the non-stop traffic on Sol del Ray, one of the busiest intersections in El Paso. Mia had wondered who lived in these apartments or similar ones like these that were all along the intersection before the freeway gave way to the ...

Shaky Jake staggered to the corner liquor store and I could smell him through the concrete walls, like the rancid smell of left-out meat. “Will you sit down, you’re giving me the willies.” Deborah said over her shoulder. I closed the curtain, turned up my nose, resting my head against the cool concrete. It was Saturday. We sat in our apartment stuck, hot, and agitated with the fan’s discordant clamoring. On punishment and banned from going outside, (although Deborah was seventeen and I was a...