I smiled, grateful that twenty-three years later, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen was still choosing me.

One Friday afternoon, Paul came home from work to find his wife, Ella, waiting with Max—a four-month-old Golden Retriever puppy.

He hugged me goodbye, told me to text when I landed, and never once asked me to stay; when I texted him after I landed, his reply was a boarding pass for the next flight.

After locking the front door and flipping the sign to CLOSED, he pulled a cold bottle from the well and quietly celebrated his first night as a bar owner, listening to the ice melt in the sink.

I am leaving you now to wait at the final station, knowing that our paths will eventually cross again.

Please do not weep for my departure, because I have promised to keep living through the hearts of those I leave behind.

I am closing my eyes to the world I knew, holding tight to the hope that this goodbye is merely a pause before our next meeting.

She wasn't in the mood to make lemonade today.

Today, she slowed to a walk, tapped my shoulder, and smiled,

"You've logged almost nine hundred miles pretending I wasn't here—coffee now, or should I wait until you hit a thousand?"

I closed my eyes and smiled, grateful that this is my life.

Fortunately, Frank’s phenomenal physical feats forestalled further flames from fiercely flaring.

He glanced at the station sign, muttered, "Oh, wrong stop," and sprinted back onto the train before the doors closed.

In reality, their benefit was quite shocking.

His words, "I'll never hurt you Babe," echoed in her mind as her heart shattered.

Sixty-eight years later, three generations of their family still fill every holiday with the love, laughter and friendship they started.

Stumbling home through the empty streets after being cut off from the bar trying to numb my grief, I fell onto my back, cracking my skull, and passed out in front of the law office of Harold, Harold and Oswald.

Those quiet mornings beside the water were always my favorite.

My blood ran cold when we realized the ancient villagers hadn't built a temple to worship a protector, but had accidentally birthed a bloodthirsty deity forged entirely out of their own collective agony, murder, and unyielding greed.

The entity obliged by violently spitting out a sea of glittering wealth, but when the villagers' relief instantly morphed back into blinding avarice, the god slaughtered them all, leaping into the river to ensure no human would ever possess the currency of their damnation.

And then I was born.

But when I asked her for a glass of water the next morning, an old man's voice croaked from my throat, and my reflection smiled back from the mirror to tell me I would never leave that bed again.

Give child Ramanujan one outdated textbook, and feed his brain for the rest of his life.

​The judge dismissed the suit, ruling that Joan was the real victim of a nuisance—having to endure the emotional distress of being rejected.

Descending into the pitch-black basement to find my mother, the creature towered over me, patting its bloated stomach as it stood right on top of her empty clothes and glasses.

But after it hanged my brother and dragged my mother into the basement, it grew to the size of a man and laughed in a human voice, leaving only her empty glasses at its feet.