fwriction

Today’s Story of the Day is a chilling short short story from the Fall/Winter 2000 issue of failbetter. I had the pleasure of working with Martha Cooley, author of The Archivist and Thirty-Three Swoons, at Bennington, and her work continues to enrich and guide my own writing:

“Like dogs, drunks in this city don’t shiver in winter.  Once they move past the aggressive or truculent behaviors, the sentimental singing, the slurring, and the sluggishness, they don’t even try to fight back.  Their bodies give off the intimate smell of neglect, a scent that saturates this city.  Moscow reeks of it, even in wintertime.  Each morning, the same thing: you step out, inhale, and carry on.”