Author: ruhlwrite

When the outdoor table is empty, Vincenzo Vaccaro takes a break and a seat. He lights a cigarette and in between smoke rings pours black coffee down his throat. Vincenzo’s the owner of Vaccaro’s Italian bakery. Soon, he’ll be doing what he does every day. He’ll be making pizzas and sandwiches for Vaccaro’s bakery, which he and his father, Francesco, own. Don’t get the wrong idea. Vincenzo isn’t going to do this forever. Yeah, it’s true that he was…

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It is what the masked men did to her before they took the money that keeps Sajida Gulamrasool up at night. The robbers put a gun to Susan’s head. They pressed a gun to her head. It was big and black and felt cold against her skin. “If you scream, we will rape you; the four of us will take turns.” That’s what they said as they pinned her arm behind her back, dragged her down the stairs and threw her against the hallway wall. Mack was away on a business trip. Short and slight,…

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It’s going on six decades. Even Jimmy Bejanis is astounded when he does the math. That’s a long time — his entire life — to stay in one place and in one house. Jimmy and Margo have been married 11 years. But what are you going to do? He shrugs. The house belonged to his parents, who are long since gone. It’s a modest two-family, and Jimmy doesn’t know much about the first floor because he’s always lived on the second. He and his older sister shared a room…

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Eleni Petraki used to be a dancer. There’s not a bit of regret in her voice when she talks about bowing out of the profession. Eleni’s a former dancer. For it was the physicality of movement that led her to the mind-body connection that transformed her life by leaps and bounds. The excitement her legs in flight once brought her now blazes in her eyes. Their windows are neon blue and oceans deep. Eleni, who grew up in Athens, Greece, saw dance in general and ballet in particular as a…

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Every time Tomas Hinojal lights a cigar, he thinks of his father. He’s puffing on a Davidoff, savoring the smoke as it covers his face like a ski mask. Tomas gets ready to light a Davidoff. Sometimes it’s better to view things through a smokescreen, at least that’s what Tomas has taught himself to believe. Tomas and his father never shared a cigar, much less a life together. It wasn’t just that God parted them when Tomas was only 17. No, Tomas had been abandoned since long…

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