The First Family of Fright

This is kind of creepy: Evan Makrogiannis is talking about mixing up a batch of blood. The recipe is so simple that even a child can do it, and his sons, 13-year-old Liam and 12-year-old Tristan, are pros at adding red, blue and yellow food coloring to corn syrup. Now, intestines, that’s another matter. It’s not exactly a trade secret, but Liam and Tristan, cool kids in geeky horn-rimmed glasses, are not sure they want to spill the beans about how they spill their guts. Evan waves his…

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The Preacher at the Old Red Church

The Rev. Dwayne L. Jackson is standing tall in the pulpit staring at the empty pews. The First Reformed Church of Astoria, the red Gothic Revival building wedged between the houses of 12th Street like an afterthought, holds 300 faithful. On a good Sunday — there are no bad Sundays or any other days of the week in Dwayne’s mind — attendance has never topped 50. Today’s Saturday, the day Dwayne puts the finishing touches on his sermon, so the fact that he’s alone with…

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The Man Whose Hobby Is Working

The tail of the “Y” went missing at Rudy’s Hobby Supplies. Sometime in time, someone painted it in to match the rest of the bright cobalt name on the 3-D sign. It’s an expert stroke of brushmanship, so this flat portion isn’t noticeable from the street. The left plate-glass window of the shop (Trains-Models-Paints-Magazines) on 30th Avenue is filled with rosaries, car magnets bearing the engraved images of saints and statues of Mother Mary and Jesus in various pious…

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The New Arrival

With the gracefulness of the dancer she once was, Malini “Mala” Ekanayake primly sits on the park bench, puts her feet together in perfect alignment and closes her big, brown eyes. While she meditates, the physical world vanishes. She’s not in Astoria Park or Sri Lanka, her home country, any more. It’s 6 a.m., and this is her second meditation of the day. She’s been in the park exercising since 5 a.m., and she’s been up since 2. It helps that she calls it a day…

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The Actor Who’s Late to the Show

Orlando Anthony Pavich wasn’t expecting morning to come so soon. He’s hasn’t shaved yet or put on a shirt. Zoe, his 2-year-old dachshund, is scurrying around the living room, jumping on the couches. The little hot dog has a big bark and poop the size of grapes. Orlando was out until 2:30 in the morning, and his coffee table, which holds a vase of dead flowers, a pair of sunglasses, a half-drunk bottle of water, a TV remote and a folded up sign-out sheet for the movie , looks like…

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