A wreath of smoke curls around her head (She stubs out her cigarette in a bone white ashtray,at the end … More

On the Wolf River in Wisconsin, 1976, 114 degrees,a hot but calm me, floating downstream on a fat black inner-tube,loving … More

I’m trying to get back into regular walking shape,my back much better after injections and physical therapy.The other day as … More

The bus driver peers at the passengers, mirrored sunglasses, in the rearview mirror, move back, keep movingback, while the old … More

David Chan was heavily sedated, but something stirring brought him back to consciousness.  Dazed and struggling to focus, he managed to … More

I’m eating dinner in Liliha Pizza hut last night.  A guy, younger, comes in.  I call out to him.  I haven’t seen him … More

She was happy to say she had very few regrets in life.  Most unhappily, those very few were all regarding her … More

There is a tension in the rigid repetition of the waves tonight, in their nature rolling lockstep ashore, breaking sternly … More

He grew up thinking of himself as red-headed first, a Korean second. Why he had red hair was a mystery. … More

We age this way, acquired lives,word by word, each learned, howtraditions grow, by nature we come to beself-practiced tellers of … More

Johnny Carson, television talk-show host and stand-up comedian, famously was often caught sneaking drags of a cigarette after coming back … More

He always introduced himself as such, but if you stopped to think about it, David Chan III did not look … More

I’d just been in Shanghai a month earlier.  There, most people know what decaffeinated coffee is.  Here in Seoul, fewer seem to … More

Let’s drink a toast to halves wholed,one round perfect sphere of ustwo magnetic in our pull to one,toward a singularity, … More

Chan’s superiors deemed it necessary, so he was assigned mandatory sessions with the department shrink.  They said they were worried about … More

“Eventually, everything will be funny.” We were eating breakfast in the Palmer House. “It’s no gimme, it won’t just happen.” … More

It did not surprise him, this sea of black suits, pouring out of the Methodist church doors.  The limos and Mercedes … More

the sound of water may always be the sound of waterthe sound of wind, windbut the sound of silence is … More

It surprised no one, given Victor Yamamoto’s active dislike for people, that the church was nearly empty.  Present were his mother … More

Oh yes I do, I do understand you now,and I believe.  Don’t you hear that scratchof my pen, running wild and … More