I became a thief after the translation company I worked for went out of business.

The dissolution of my company was a messy affair and I don't want to go into it right now, if ever. The company still owes me quite a lot of back pay, though I'm quite sure I won't… Read full post »

When I was a kid I hated school. I couldn't stand teachers, math, sloppy joes, gym class, the other kids. I did anything to not go to school. Mother was drunk and didn't care and truancy officers were after me all the time. I spent a lot of time in the… Read full post »

I'm a second class angel, which means I'm more or less a temp worker in the angel business. I don't even have wings.

First class angels have tenure and wings and are the ones who get their names mentioned in the holy books. We do drudge work for god's myriad little… Read full post »

I can be felt, but I can't be seen.

I'm a ghost, and I am out of my mind.

I spend my time hugging the living in a particular way, squeezing life out of them.

I'm good at it, one of the best. I can do it without being… Read full post »

I was bitten by a vampire the year Rahm Emanuel became the mayor of Chicago. The guy who bit me was a sick and evil bastard. I hired a vampire hunter from Kenosha to do him in. While I was at it, I had her get rid of all the vampires… Read full post »

It was a long time ago, back when Seattle still had the Kingdome. We went to see Peter Frampton there, and Jimmy Carter was our president.

Things were going bad, and I was going to make them worse. I sat in our room near Green Lake, and put my pills on… Read full post »

My right arm disappeared the same time Yui did. I woke up and it wasn't there, as if it had always been that way.

I then stopped smoking and eating because I no longer had to. Work stopped being important so I stopped going to the office. The TV and the… Read full post »

Part 6 of the "Tilt Girl" series.  

Toshiko Mochizuki woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat. This had been happening regularly since her teenage daughter Shinobu had run away from home when she learned that both her father and older brother were gay. Toshiko had been spendin… Read full post »

Part 5 of the "Tilt Girl" series. 

When she was in middle school, Shinobu Mochizuki was told by her mother that she would go on to live a compartmentalized life, with worlds hidden from each other with secrets and lies.

Shinobu remembered looking up from her pyrex teacup perplexed; she had… Read full post »

Yoshimitsu Mochizuki, a university student and a gymnast, sat at his desk and tried to come to terms with a problem: Shinobu, his sister who had graduated from high school the previous spring, had moved into his apartment's closet and he couldn't get her to… Read full post »

Part 3 of the "Tilt Girl" series.

Kazuhiro Mochizuki sat at his desk in his study and went through the new year cards that arrived that morning. He read the messages on each card, sent by relatives, friends, business contacts, the bars he frequented, his fishing buddies, etc. There were two… Read full post »

Part 2 of the "Tilt Girl" series. 

Shinobu Mochizuki sat at the kitchen table, watching the little Christmas tree made out of optic fibers on corner of the table. The tips of the fibers lighted on and off ever so gently and reminded Shinobu of city lights she had seen from… Read full post »

I have a friend who's a vampire. His name is Phil and he claims to be the only vampire in Tokyo. He's immortal and he's seen the American, French, and Russian revolutions. He can go on for hours with stories about Benjamin Franklin ("a real party animal"), Marie Antoinette ("she was… Read full post »

It's always the same; it never fluctuates in any way.

I close my eyes and almost simultaneously the thing starts itself up.

It's a dream that begins with me feeling cold asphalt touching my chin.

I look forward and I see it: the black leather shoe.

I… Read full post »

I am a Japanese man living in Japan; my small joy is going to the bathhouse.

I don't have to do this; my apartment has a perfectly nice bath and I usually do my bathing there.

I go to the bathhouse when I can because of the experience.

Going to the… Read full post »