The inspiration: A story: Shadow always got his older brother’s hand-me-downs. He was second in being served dinner. Brother, summer baby, got the lavish birthday parties while Shadow, born 12/26, got combo gifts. Brother got a new car at 16, which he took to University, while Shadow drove mom’s gasping Rambler to junior college. Then Brother swept away and married the girl Shadow had been dating. The years of seething

Pops had played the Orpheum Circuit. Dad, every casino in the world. He used to say he raised no fools, but I’m afraid I might be proving him wrong. One job, Jones said, one spectacular con. If not for your country, then for a clean rap sheet and a new identity, they said. With the city spread at my feet, and a mess of brains and blood spread on the

The Inspiration: A story: Great-uncle Virgil never married after Ruby left. The other town girls tried to woo him, showing up at the house he had built for his erstwhile bride with covered dishes and no underwear. He turned them away, keeping a picture of Ruby in the foyer. Packing up the house after the funeral, I lifted Ruby from the wall, meaning to put her in the trunk I

The Inspiration: A story: She was at the bar, dress the color of arterial blood, mahogany hair so rich a man would do anything to see it fanned out across a pillow. I’m one of those men. Like the dead man I had just left. She picked up the tumbler swallowing the amber liquid without a flinch. Scotch. Neat. I think I’m in love. “Dead?” “Ma’am, you don’t seem to

The Inspiration: A story: Her eyes were not filled with wonder but a growing horror. She looked across a foresaken landscape, emptied of people. Decaying buildings, slouching in shame of their paint-stripped nakedness. It no longer spoke of a community where people once walked, laughed, lived and… Loved… The car. A rusted hulk that mocked her. She could still feel the soft leather against her bare back, his hand sliding