Jack's father owned the city's biggest and best bar, the nerve center for deal-making, and as Jack grew older his penchant for intelligence gathering led him to a job with tne feds.

The world was plunged into darkness, not by some divine machination, but by the hand of man.

The old songs still haunted his memory, the words now out of reach, but the melodies — like a low, howling wind through the trees — remained.

Months later the river mud still clung to the streets and the sound of construction could be heard along the banks.

The town's residents had decided, seemingly on a whim one winter morning, electric power was wrought by the Devil and had it outlawed, along with books, cars and chewing gum.

The floor was a sea of wrapping paper, packing peanuts and boxes.

Their eyes were as bright as the lights on the tree that morning.

"What at first I took for a zest for life turned out to be mental illness," said Zip with a sigh as he told me about his ex.

Smith got to where he was through hard work, pluck, determination and his family's deep pockets and worldwide connections.

The pool of messengers was dwindling due to the king's penchant for killing them whenever bad news came his way.

The news was all bad, which was good (for the ratings).

The party was over, the floor littered with cigarette butts, empty bottles and the wayward friends too drunk to go anywhere but to sleep.

Cue the marching band.

On Josiah's 99th birthday he dragged out a ladder, made it onto the roof and cleaned the gutters with a satisfied sigh, finally able to check it off his to do list.

The baton was tapped, his arms raised and with an audible intake of breath they knew it was time to begin again.

Clyde was growing weary of Bonnie's back-seat driving, which had extended into how he handled the bank robberies.

S. woke up to a face he didn't recognize as his own.

The old painter could barely pick up a brush, but managed to retain his power when it hit the canvas.

The coroner's job was harder when it involved a friend.

The city was slowly collapsing in on itself in a rust-belt, pain-killer induced, teen pregnancy riddled vortex.

Jody often wondered how he went from MIT wunderkind to second-tier pornographer, but believed it may have been the pharmaceuticals.

The hot rod remained where Raymond left it before shipping out.

The escalation of hostilities began slowly, but by spring the neighbors upped the stakes by hiring crooked land surveyors, hack lawyers and, eventually, strong-arm men.

Where once sailors and prostitutes cavorted there was now just a bramble-covered spit of land jutting into the brown and churning river.

I knew she had done something awful when I found the wad of blood-stained cash in her purse.

The fog rolled in like the dark thoughts of the man standing by the shore.

For Artie, maturity came when a sunrise stopped meaning he should put down the beer and head off to sleep, but rather to pick up a coffee cup and head off to work.

He waited for news, pacing, a hollowness in his features.

Travis enjoyed wallowing in the underbelly of his picture-perfect town, as did the mayor and the chief of police.

Lacy Valentine hated that holiday in February that bore her name since she rarely received those tokens of affection.

The octogenarian radical, no longer up on current politics and slightly senile, was confused about what side he should support and so wandered back and forth from one side of the line of protesters to the other.