Torsade Literary Space 
Are You Jealous (part two)
Are You Jealous (part two) “What do you think?” Eva asked. Since he hadn’t been listening, he countered with a question of his own. “Have you decided to sell it?” “My clock?” Coquettish hand to heart. “I’ll never sell my clock. McFadden says it’s only middle-range. But […]
Are You Jealous (part one)
Are You Jealous (part one) Gabriel heard Eva’s voice…her put-on voice, he called it. She spoke this way to delivery people, sing-song, thanking them, ushering them out the door. He heard the door close, whoosh into its frame followed by the thunk of the bolt. He heard […]
Story: Sympathy for the Torturer (part five)
Sympathy for the Torturer (part five) Down the coast. That must be the expression. Herward used it, and Herward came from there. Down the coast they had sat on the daybed in Anton’s room, he with the sisters, talking. “Oh, poor Anton. You’re so easy. You’ve never had anything.” […]
Story: Sympathy for the Torturer (part four)
Sympathy for the Torturer (part four) “If we were to bring a confederate of hers into custody, if some resister knew where the grenade had come from… You wouldn’t expect us to be nice about letting him conceal that information?” Herward had forced this argument before, on every occasion […]
Story: Sympathy for the Torturer (part three)
Sympathy for the Torturer (part three) The guard had pantomimed at Anton. “That’s right. Take those off…you get me? You can’t hide your face indoors.” He saw his dark glasses crushed in a pocket. Tossed in a bin marked Lost and Found. “Prove those are yours.” He would have […]
Story: Drownings (conclusion)
Drownings (part eleven) “How…? I don’t believe you.” “Our own provincial da Vinci, Stephen…now I recall. Victor Tambinder himself, the ancestor. The magnets in their circles, the great ring of smaller rings, to move perpetually with the rotation of the earth.” Among attractions in this district of the […]
Story: Drownings (part ten)
Drownings (part ten) In the morning… Fog more than fogs of memory, riddled with corpse dust, one could only call it, figures in the dress of ages, with a fish-belly gleam to their skins, pressing into visibility but eased back. As though the heavy mist were a membrane. McAlley […]
Story: Drownings (part nine)
Drownings (part nine) Victor Tambinder, or Dustin Carmadge, or some other, had in his kitchen four kinds of cereal, soured milk in the refrigerator, blackened bananas on the countertop, a bucket of dirty mop water on the floor. Faia in the medicine cabinet found nasal spray, eyedrops, coated aspirin, […]
Story: Drownings (part eight)
Drownings (part eight) The outer door was unlocked, the lobby a commercial corridor of glass doors and display windows. A quartet of businesses and a stairwell. Faia rapped at Joanel Properties, A. Jellison, but McAlley strolled on, noting what else. Fentz Aquarium Supply; Colburn Studio; BCB2. Curious, this last. […]
Story: Drownings (part seven)
Drownings (part seven) For good or ill, at this moment her phone rang. She put it on speaker. “Julia.” “Julia?” the man asked anyway. “Is this Mr. Herberston?” “Are you some sort of reporter?” Her eyes said to McAlley, he’s been checking. “Mr. Herbertson, I’m enquiring after the job. […]