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Story originally submitted to Narratively’s 2024 Memoir Contest Spoiler alert: The title’s elements are in reverse order of their appearance. Also, the Singer was a sewing machine. And me, I was a funny thirteen-year-old kid doing hard time at middle school, counting down the final weeks until my three-year sentence was served. To have some…

The house is dark. It’s an empty dark.   Bottomless pit black.   I wish I could flip a switch and flood this place with light. With love. With life.   The way it once was.   So brilliant, so happy, so dazzling.   Forever bright, the fool thought – to myself.    Infinity belongs to the night.…

GYM GOLD “You want to work in for a couple sets?” It’s meant to be a joke, because it’s laughable. The only place where Jim Gold and I work out together would be a gym in an alternate universe. Jim Gold is six foot eight, weighs well north of three hundred pounds, and most of…

FATHERHOOD I am not ready for this. A fragile life hangs in the balance. It’s my own flesh and blood, my responsibility. It feels as if his life is in my hands. I look at them and will them not to tremble.   My God. I’m not ready. But that doesn’t matter. The fact is,…

SATURDAY NIGHT FOREVER Tonight’s the night. If all goes well, I — I should stop right there.    Tonight has the potential to be big. I’m at an invitation-only wedding at Hotel Bel-Air. My “plus one” is Haley Sinclair, the incredible girl that I’m going to marry. If I work up the nerve to ask her,…

IT’S NOT ME, IT’S SHOES “You know…” She said, in the way she would often begin a conversation. My eyes never left my phone’s screen, but I did grunt an acknowledgement. “I’ve given it a good try, a fair one. But – It’s not working for me and it’s not going to.” I looked up…

WALLS “Raisins,” he said. Her nametag read “Cassie.” He didn’t remember seeing her here before, until just now as her cheery voice asked him what he was looking for.    “You’re new here,” he said, surprised at how quickly she had answered, “Aisle J6.” Before she could answer, another man rudely interrupted, pulling Cassie’s arm.…

If you know Billy, then you have a “Billy story.” Just one?! Right. More likely it’s “Where do I even start?” One of my earliest recollections of Billy was back when my age was still in single digits. He was the kid in our backyard that my brothers and I were staring at like Who…