Serial novel

Now in on Young Street, in the Hydrostone Market area—this quaint strip of shops and restaurants, all architecturally similar with this splendid example of English-style garden suburb sort of vibe to it all—Sarah and Gertraud arrive at the first spot that doesn’t seem crowded. The cart comes to the most awkward and anticlimactic slowing-down-to-a-halt sort of […]

If Myles had not been in the basement listening to the pseudo-sitcom ridiculousness going on upstairs, he might have seen what some of the roommates looked like in the flesh for the first time ever. He would have caught Sarah and Gertraud in a real unanticipated bonding moment, the kind of relationship-strengthening exercise that only […]

The city’s cold air rested itself in the cracks of the city. It filled the negative spaces between walls like a vapourous caulking, filling mailboxes and surging north and south at the Barrington and Spring Garden intersection. The painful, palpable chill that smacked against your face cloaked the downtown down-and-outers that piled on top of […]

Dougie’s party wheeled onward through pinatas, play-fights, balloon animals, duck-duck-goose, apple-bobbing, games of tag, two dozen youngsters unleashing enervated laughter through heaves and heavy coughs while being chased around a home where only Dougie knew all the labyrinthine twists and turns, through parents’ legs underneath the long dining room table. Fro-yo was dispensed and dished […]

ACT II: And for that little guy, that little kid who heard the rest of the pre-meeting from the vents in the dust-laden and dampened basement, he heard A. Welnot sniffling to himself and mumbling maniacally while everyone else was lost during his time there by the bathroom door. He sat down by himself most […]

In the living room they still sat. Their eyes near-watering as the wretched stench of the downstairs bathroom wafted in. The Northwood Terrace roommate meeting was actually more of a precursor to what Welnot’s hoped-for actual meeting would be: a poll to see what day was best for everyone to meet. Welnot was elated and […]

Welnot could see right through Alex’s snooty, high-falutin academic techno-babble and self-satisfaction; all his prefixed-isms and suffixed terms and endless references to other books there’s no way he finished. Right there in that room, he knew what was going on. He knew Alex was trying to pull one over on everyone, fool them all into […]

Welnot called Sarah, Alex and Trevor into the room for the meeting w/r/t matters of household concern e.g. the toilet bowl shit, Trevor walking in mumbling, “Isn’t he the one who hasn’t let anyone flush the toilet yet?” Sarah Toile walking in, this being her first time being seen around the house since the last […]

On the television a local anchor on a low-quality camera was fumbling through a piece. He was clumsy, and was hired because he was clumsy. That made viewers tune in to the down-home pieces about remote control boat races, demolition derbies and the canine that joined the Citadel High wrestling team. Tonight he was participating […]

“Yeah, well, here it is: These people, they all go to so many support groups, AA, NA, CA-type meetings. Because they can be real reality checks, you know. And create such a strong sense of awareness for others around you. You can recognize yourself in others, themselves in you, ex-etera (sic), and they go for […]