Torsade Literary Space The Totem-Maker (part one)
The Totem-Maker Chapter One: The Little I Can Tell (part one) I would not have asked to be born under a portent. The day of my arrival on earth began, at daybreak, with a fearsome one. I knew the story so well, I could for years picture the […]
The Mirrors (part forty-three)
The Mirrors (part forty-three) When he stands, prize in his fist, he can’t see Harold. There is no street to see him on. Rolling clouds surround the viewer, smoke to stifle and choke. You know yourself a witness from a strange vantage, no sense alive in you but sight. One […]
All Bedlam Courses Past (part forty)
All Bedlam Courses Past Chapter Two Avarice Creeping On (part forty) iii Alarica A college friend of her mother, visiting once…emphasize once… Élucide’s father, making jokes about women and gossip, had shut himself in his library. The friend, taking this treatment in […]
All Bedlam Courses Past (part thirty-nine)
All Bedlam Courses Past Chapter Two Avarice Creeping On (part thirty-nine) But no, he would not. He set a waiter at Buckley’s club to come running whenever Buckley arrived at the oyster bar. Alerted, he accosted Buckley and demanded a meeting. Buckley, as before cronies […]
All Bedlam Courses Past (part thirty-eight)
All Bedlam Courses Past Chapter Two Avarice Creeping On (part thirty-eight) “Oh, sixty, thereabouts. Soon had an inkling…not to joke…what was the truth of the matter. Demrose meant to raise scandal on Parker’s character, as in, ‘a well-known party who hopes to make tracks for […]
All Bedlam Courses Past (part thirty-seven)
All Bedlam Courses Past Chapter Two Avarice Creeping On (part thirty-seven) Quackenbush (who had just said frah-cah) laughed, discovering irony. “I suppose, by that, you may have heard of him…papers all rechristened New Democrat. Nashville N. D., Jeff City N. D., St. Louis N. D., […]
All Bedlam Courses Past (part thirty-six)
All Bedlam Courses Past Chapter Two Avarice Creeping On (part thirty-six) He got the ball rolling. “Think I gave you a pretty good gist in my letter. Our town’s a small place…” “Not so very, though, from what I’ve read.” “That’ll please the mayor, you […]
All Bedlam Courses Past (part thirty-five)
All Bedlam Courses Past Chapter Two Avarice Creeping On (part thirty-five) Thacker had worked that decade out of Springfield, Illinois; to the Centennial, Indianapolis. He knew the party floggers’ modes of campaign. Along the bridge, finding a lamppost to lean on with the Banner, he […]
All Bedlam Courses Past (part thirty-four)
All Bedlam Courses Past Chapter Two Avarice Creeping On (part thirty-four) “Have we actually met?” “In the way of things,” Thacker answered. A blunt thing needed saying. “Manfred is coming along with us.” “On Rutherford’s car?” “I can’t see Mr. Rutherford minding. Mr. Ryan-Neville is […]
The Mirrors (part forty-two)
The Mirrors (part forty-two) “Is he Dumain? Or if he was…if he’s dead…does Dumain leave the world that way?” “Chamante, you and I are learning together. How could I know?” “I’m sorry.” She owed Veronica an apology for more than one thing. For not saying at once, how are you? […]