The government agency's relationship with the industry it was supposed to regulate was such that the one became both a jumping-off point for the careers of the industrialists as well as a de facto retirement system.

Elaine's lifelong dream of becoming a pilot was eventually quashed when she developed a complete fear of heights, even of the piddling variety.

His obsession with his own childhood soon led him to move back to the town he grew up in, but upon visiting his old haunts his recollections immediately began to fade leading to a total lose of memory.

The exotic screechings of the peacocks and other birds beckoned Cicily towards the aviary with its pungent smells and humid air.

His shaking thumb clicks the safety off as he unsteadily raises the heavy weapon.

The steam blasting up from below the dirty snow covered streets enveloped him like a warm blanket and reminded him why he loved the city in winter.

Turning away from the front door and the moaning coming from within the blue house the Carolers made their way next door where they hoped for a different sort of reception.

Sometimes memories of his home would overwhelm him as he went about his day and were so visceral he would almost double over in the remembering.

The wrestling match between the couple began as a game, but 10 minutes in neither was willing to yield as they sweated, heaved and pulled at each other's bodies vying for superior position.

Christmas in jail was the hardest time for Jenny, as the institution made a half-hearted attempt to decorate for the holiday and even served a meal that included turkey and potatoes, when all she wanted to do was forget about Dec.25.

With the dawn came the realization of the level of destruction the town had suffered as people wandered aimlessly down Main Street through the smoldering ruins.

Some people may feel that I'm a monster, but harassing people who don't pay their bills is, in my opinion, God's work.

Larry thought of himself as a lone wolf, a singular voice calling out in the wilderness, while in truth he was a boring blow-hard that incessantly talked about himself to anyone within earshot.

The swirling snow and ice covered landscape would have been considered beautiful by Sara if it wasn't slowly killing her as she sat stranded in her car.

At night she dreamed of darkened subways.

Trumbull's arm shot out, deflecting the knife as it flashed through the air, while his hand, now covered in blood, continued to move forward, contacted the soft flesh and began to squeeze.

We prepared ourselves that day for the return to Earth expecting a hero's welcome, not understanding that having been gone as long as we had our friends, family and the public had moved on and we had become but a distant, glimmering memory.

The parade ended in chaos when the marching band decided they had had enough competition and attacked the local radio station's van that had been blaring "Funky Cold Medina," the entire five miles of the route.

When I saw her I knew she would be the next one and couldn't stop thinking about her as I made all the necessary preparations.

In a town with cross-dressing bartenders, a one-eyed, Harley riding mayor and a council that often physically brawled, it was hard for the disenfranchised youth to stand out.

He traveled thousands of miles only to be rejected by the very people whose doctrine he had come to admire so deeply.

The buzz around the office that day was that Francis was about to be sacked and as sometimes happens with news, it was so garbled by the time it got back to him that he was under the impression he was being replaced by either a newly acquired super computer or an orangutan.

The pistol's hammer clicked and both men winced in anticipation of the report, but none came and with a sickening smile the man Louis had despised for so long raised his own weapon.

When he flossed his teeth at night it inevitably led him to thoughts of old age and his eventual death.

Words floated through Ivan's mind all day, sometimes it was a song lyric, but mostly it was a name—Eloise—that gnawed away at his brain from the edge of recollection and kept him clicking through his memories like a slide show from an old family vacation.

"Son, when you've been drinking cheap scotch as long as I have the good stuff just doesn't taste right," remarked the old man after Terry offered to buy him a single-malt.

Soon after moving to the city, Sharon realized two things—that most of the people she met who seemingly had hipper jobs were actually unpaid interns living off their parents' money and that, invariably, her new home was populated by ex-pat Ohioans.

Otter was back in town, figuring things had blown-over from the trial in which he had been the star witness, but he was still cautious enough to spend the last of his money on a cheap .22.

Lee squirmed in his seat as the townspeople hurled wild accusations at him due to a misprint in the town's budget that put an extra zero behind his salary and provided the platform everyone needed to rip into his private life.

Forlorn, stripped of faith, without friends, they continued on their ceaseless journey westward.

At some point the novelist ran out of story lines and could be seen eavesdropping on conversations at bars and following couples down the street hastily scribbling in his notepad.