Category Archives: Fiction

Breanna Dirks laid on her back in bed, her body in ecstasy as one of her long-standing fantasies was playing out in real time.  As one lover’s penis thrust into her mouth, another lover’s penis was penetrating her vagina.  Breanna’s … Continue reading →

Gretchen Paulson did her best to find comfort in the passenger seat of colleague Sophia Fiorentino’s Lincoln Navigator in the sweltering sun of a mid-July Sunday afternoon, heading eastbound on Interstate 70 through central Missouri. She uncrossed and then recrossed … Continue reading →

A frazzled Alexis Sampson bursted into her daughter’s bedroom long before dawn and turned the lights on, her heart racing a mile a minute as she progressed toward 12-year-old Hannah’s bed. Alexis’s focus was diverted for a split second as … Continue reading →

It had been several years since I last attended a Paulson family wedding but I was watching one unfold this sunny June afternoon, enjoying my front-row seat for the pending outdoor ceremony as I awaited the wedding party’s arrival.  Gretchen’s … Continue reading →

The rear employee entrance of the Lakeside Bistro in Maple Grove burst open with urgency at 1:30 on a mid-June Wednesday afternoon. Barreling outdoors in her waitress uniform and black slacks with an unlit Marlboro Light 100 dangling from her … Continue reading →

Breanna Dirks sat confidently at the head of the board room of her father’s company, Dirks Financial, a large and freshly lit Maduro cigar clenched between her jaws as she surveyed a dozen of her employees from the collections department … Continue reading →

The contagious sound of teenage laughter at the beginning of peak mating season filled the air in late May, combined with the odors of sunscreen and cigarette smoke as six friends sat poolside in Lauren Nelson’s backyard enjoying each other’s … Continue reading →

Steering her mom’s Buick slowly through the nearly empty parking lot of her high school on a gloomy late March Monday morning, Haylee McPherson was as anxious as she’d been in quite some time.  A half-smoked Camel Pink No. 9 … Continue reading →

How was I ever gonna be able to let this go, I thought to myself as I sat on the patio furniture of our Richmond, Virginia, estate one final time this unusually warm mid-spring evening, taking up the center of … Continue reading →

A pair of snowmobiles sped northward through a wooded trail on a bitter Saturday afternoon in late January in northern Minnesota, each carrying a driver and passenger covered from head to toe in snowmobile suits with their faces hidden from … Continue reading →

Steve McPherson parked his Lexus at the edge of a residential urban street, arriving at his destination and bracing himself for a moment before getting out of the car and doing what he had to do.  Steve opened the car … Continue reading →

Lauren Nelson drove her car aimlessly down the streets of the western Minneapolis suburbs after school on a dreary late November Monday.  Sitting in the passenger seat, best friend Haylee McPherson made idle chatter with Lauren as they drove through … Continue reading →

Lauren Nelson sat by herself in the principal’s office of her high school on a late October Tuesday afternoon.  Slouched down in her chair wearing a school-appropriate blue sweatshirt and black leggings, her sunken expression matched the profile one would … Continue reading →

Standing near the curb at the edge of a downtown sidewalk in front of their parked cars on a mid-September Wednesday afternoon, mid-teen friends Lauren Nelson, Haylee McPherson, and Carly Hansen enthusiastically traded stories of the new school year with … Continue reading →

Becky McPherson turned her tan Buick into the same suburban Minneapolis alley as she had been doing at least two times monthly for the past few years on an early August Thursday afternoon.  She spotted the familiar black van parked … Continue reading →

Trevor McPherson was heading home on a hot Friday afternoon in mid-July after a miserable day of mowing lawns in the 90-degree summer heat.  He would have already been there if not for the unusual instructions sent to him by … Continue reading →

The swimming pool in Lauren Nelson’s backyard was bustling with activity on a warm Wednesday morning in mid-June.  Lauren sat poolside in a reclining beach chair, decked out in a stylish white bikini with a bluish-green flower pattern that contrasted … Continue reading →

The hundreds of employees at Philip Morris’ Virginia headquarters were on their best behavior this morning, knowing that CEO Gretchen Paulson was not only coming into the office today for a morning board meeting, but that a hit piece from … Continue reading →

Becky McPherson took a fierce drag from her Marlboro Red as she sat in the small, dimly lit bathroom facility designated for hospital staff, holding her cell phone to her ear and listening to her husband speak.  If the wrong … Continue reading →

Trevor McPherson was barely even trying at this point to focus on his older sister’s tax form tutorial as he sat at the kitchen table between his sisters, a haze of fresh cigarette smoke engulfing his personal space from both … Continue reading →