Then something happened which made Callie feel something she’d never felt before. A tall boy close to her own age stepped from the train and gave the big man a hug.
The stars were out and bright, and the moon was close to full. There were no UFOs hovering over the trailer or anywhere else that I could see. It might seem strange to be so nonchalant about it all, b...
The city itself was dead. Some buildings had chunks missing. Bricks and concrete were scattered along sidewalks, debris mingling with bodies. Once this had been a thriving metropolis with a heartbeat...
The boys weren't just whistling Dixie when they said she was a piece of junk that flew. The flying part I had yet to see but from the looks of her, it was going to be nothing short of a miracle from h...
The Bird Park. We spent more time than I had expected to there — nearly an hour. We walked across quaint bridges, saw flamingos and macaws and toucans, and a host of others. Ellen bought the appropria...
Some primal instinct tells the parent, or the person down on their luck, than if we let it go — the child's hand, or our dignity — all is lost, and we’ll never get it back. That’s why, if you even bot...
Rick was stretched out on the floor taking a nap. He was the lightest sleeper I'd ever known. He could doze just about anywhere and be up and alert in an instant. His ability to drop off and then wake...
Paris is a sensuous woman every man has loved, even if only in his dreams. Once he has been deep inside her, walked her streets and tasted her delights, he can never forget her. Yet no matter how stro...
Oh, right, just stroll on down to the car lot, big as you please. What’ll I say I’m doing? He knows I can’t afford a car. Karen started laughing again as she answered. You could tell him you’ve lost a...
Lonesome tried to hide his surprise that Katie and Tommy lived in an old line-shack. It jutted out in the back where someone had slapped on a narrow rectangular room maybe six feet wide and eight feet...
Lone Tree was a cow-town without the cow. No one I ever talked to had an answer as to how it had sprung up here in the middle of nowhere, nor did they know who the genius was who had thought it a good...
Katie Wells stood looking out her window down to the street below. She could still feel the effects of the hard-rock miner getting his money's worth in every way he could. Angry that he could not affo...
Jerry and I stood outside Woolworth listening to young, bundled-up Christmas carolers down the street. They were going from store to store sharing the spirit of the season. On top of the Woolworth Co....
I’d landed in Los Angeles after the war, and spent the past three years working as a private detective; mostly dodging trouble while trying to help this mug or that one get out of a jam of his own mak...
It was true, so she bought it and nodded her head. In Crystal Falls a fax was high-tech. We had one only because last time I was in Boise I stopped at an Office Depot and picked one up. My money, not...
If there was a divine plan, some otherworldly force at work here, it couldn't be such a cruel one as to allow me a glimpse of heaven then take it away, could it?
I was an okay looking guy when I cleaned up, but I hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and my clothes were strictly bargain basement — Salvation Army hand-me-downs. She was either the nicest girl in th...
I packed up the office files, then swung by the apartment to pay up my rent and let the sour-faced old bat who collected it know I was moving out. She didn’t seem heartbroken.
I never had a more wonderful time with anyone than I had with Mary that afternoon. I won her a small stuffed bear, and felt ten feet tall. She introduced me to just about everyone, and it made me feel...
Her face, especially those lovely eyes, filled with amusement. She whispered, Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? I laughed and she couldn’t help but join me. There was something restful a...