The True Sentence

2012-01-30T04:03:00.000-08:00

Blake was as sober as a judge at his sentencing, but the judge was drunk.

2012-01-29T06:44:00.000-08:00

Turner hoped they all lived to regret underestimating him.

2012-01-28T06:07:00.000-08:00

Priscilla felt happiest in the presence of mirrors and admirers.

2012-01-27T04:09:00.000-08:00

He could feel hatred and blood-lust emanating from the gathering crowd.

2012-01-26T04:19:00.000-08:00

The cherry bomb in the toilet was the only topic of conversation in the teacher's lounge, superseding discussions on the school's deplorable test scores.

2012-01-25T04:13:00.000-08:00

Always fastidious, Burt could not stand the thought of visiting his in-laws with their little piles of clutter found throughout the house.

2012-01-24T04:20:00.000-08:00

The whole city smelled like burned circuitry.

2012-01-23T04:18:00.000-08:00

In the no-man's land between the high life and oblivion Phil made his home.

2012-01-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

The turncoat turnkey helped the prisoners escape only to stop them just outside the gates, guaranteeing a promotion and his picture in the paper.

2012-01-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

She stole his heart along with all his valuables.

2012-01-20T04:31:00.000-08:00

"The world went into the crapper when they introduced the leisure suit," the haberdasher insisted.

2012-01-19T04:10:00.000-08:00

An inveterate tinkerer, the doctor discovered both a way to save millions of people through an innovative food production method, as well as a new chemical to wipe those same millions out with a single dose.

2012-01-18T04:06:00.000-08:00

The wind-whipped willows looked like women waiting for their seafaring husbands to return home.

2012-01-17T04:12:00.000-08:00

Trent had a hard time staying in the moment, a habit that often led to his getting lost.

2012-01-16T04:31:00.000-08:00

The pestilence spread through the village with such rapidity that after the first day there was no one well enough to care for the sick and dying.

2012-01-15T06:10:00.000-08:00

Off skylarking they did not hear the approaching troops.

2012-01-14T05:30:00.000-08:00

The realization hit Todd hard: I hate my child.

2012-01-13T04:25:00.000-08:00

It wasn't the landslide defeat at the polls that hurt, but rather that his own mother voted against him.

2012-01-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

They gallantly galloped straight into the trap.

2012-01-12T04:25:00.000-08:00

Through the blinding snow they saw their rival's flag and knew all the suffering was for naught.

2012-01-10T04:16:00.000-08:00

All she wanted was for her husband's lies to stop, an impossibility during campaign season.

2012-01-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

His body was soft and baby-like, but his eyes betrayed his true nature.

2012-01-09T05:49:00.000-08:00

"Getting at the truth is a hard thing," McDermot told me over coffee, "and the best we can do is hold on to the bull's tail and see where that beast drags us."

2012-01-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

All the gizmos and whirligigs of modern times could not stop the inevitable moment of impact between Brian and the cow that slipped her bounds and stood in the middle of the darkened road.

2012-01-06T04:14:00.000-08:00

He went off his diet in a blaze of Ho Hos, Twinkies and Moon Pies.

2012-01-05T04:27:00.000-08:00

They rolled up the driveway with the lights off, cut the engine and waited.

2012-01-04T04:08:00.000-08:00

As the temperature plummeted the petty crime rose, committed by men with hopes of getting a warm place to stay until spring.

2012-01-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

"In the end it comes down to dumb luck," thought Dawn as her car careened down the embankment.

2012-01-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Lance spent the day nursing a hangover, watching the petals of the lilies on his mantle slowly open up.

2012-01-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

It came to him in a dream, a talisman for the second half of his life: "Let mortality be your guide."

2011-12-31T05:31:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-12-30T04:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-29T04:19:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-12-28T04:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-27T04:09:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-12-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-25T09:10:00.001-08:00

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

2011-12-24T05:49:00.000-08:00

"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.

2011-12-23T04:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-22T04:15:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-21T04:30:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-20T04:17:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-19T04:34:00.000-08:00

Cue the marching band.

2011-12-19T04:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-12-17T05:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-16T04:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-15T04:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-14T04:18:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-13T04:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-12T05:54:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-11T05:49:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-09T04:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-12-08T04:27:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-07T04:17:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-06T04:22:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-05T04:20:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-12-04T05:52:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-03T06:02:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-01T04:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-11-30T04:16:00.000-08:00

Repudiated, spit on and reviled as "the wickedest man in the country" Dr. Thompson basked in his new-found fame.

2011-11-29T04:22:00.000-08:00

"Life is inherently unfair," I told her as we walked through the field, "some animals we love like family, others we eat for breakfast."

2011-11-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

The world was moving too fast for Eustice who refused to get rid of his phone that required a crank and the same went for his car.

2011-11-27T07:03:00.000-08:00

With a shattering of glass and the stampeding of shoppers, the holiday season began.

2011-11-26T06:20:00.000-08:00

There was no ticker-tape, no cheering crowds, no medals, just a dark and lonely room in a VA hospital.

2011-11-25T04:13:00.000-08:00

There were gunshots in the distance, a prelude to just another Saturday night.

2011-11-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

Topper thought of his family as a derisive bunch of hooligans with a penchant for booze and bad decision making and included himself in that category as well.

2011-11-23T04:03:00.000-08:00

He watched the police from his hiding place, a sense of childlike anticipation at what they were about to discover.

2011-11-22T04:02:00.000-08:00

The police began to suspect the looting from the night before had been perpetrated by Brooklyn hipsters since the only businesses hit were vintage record shops, up-scale second hand clothiers and coffee houses.

2011-11-21T04:06:00.000-08:00

Gordy woke up that morning, showered, got dressed, ate and was halfway out the door before realizing he was, as of now, a "former" police detective.

2011-11-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

The weed-choked and desolate resort was once the height of fashion.

2011-11-19T05:11:00.000-08:00

We watched the sand blow across the deserted beach and understood this would be the final season.

2011-11-18T03:58:00.000-08:00

With the collapse of their arch rival's football program the school's boosters began kicking around for another team to hate.

2011-11-17T03:58:00.000-08:00

As a parting shot, the gardener spent all night clipping the hedges into shockingly accurate depictions of his employers in acrobatic, and possibly illegal, sexual conduct.

2011-11-16T04:06:00.000-08:00

What my dog found in the woods that morning would rock our small Southern town for a generation.

2011-11-15T04:13:00.000-08:00

Lulu, who only liked to make love during rainstorms, began to suspect there were ulterior motives in her husband's insistence they move from Arizona to Seattle.

2011-11-14T04:13:00.000-08:00

The sky was an Impressionist painting, the town a Norman Rockwell print.

2011-11-14T04:11:00.000-08:00

Luigi was up to his neck in mayhem when all he ever wanted was a brush in his hand and a canvas before him.

2011-11-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

The vegan toreador had issues.

2011-11-11T04:38:00.000-08:00

"That boy ain't gonna make it in prison," the drug dealer waiting to be sentenced said aloud as the teenager was dragged from the courtroom, wailing.

2011-11-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

Eventually the whole world stopped dreaming.

2011-11-09T04:02:00.000-08:00

He didn't hear the warning shouts over the holiday din until it was too late and he had been beaten nearly unconscious with a turkey leg by his overworked wife.

2011-11-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

The writer stared at a statue of himself now residing in a city park and wondered if the fraud he had perpetrated would ever be discovered.

2011-11-07T03:56:00.000-08:00

Desperadoes no longer, they settled into family life, but at night they would dream of being on the run with a gun in one hand and a sack of money in the other.

2011-11-06T05:22:00.000-08:00

The circus remained at the edge of our consciousness the whole year and yet its arrival as the first leaves began to fall always seemed to sneak up on us.

2011-11-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

"They threw the bums out and replaced them with idiots," lamented Jones reading the morning paper.

2011-11-04T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Rev. Bigalow, tired of his flock's ambivalence, began using PowerPoint in conjunction with his sermons, hoping to spice things up with pie-graphs and charts.

2011-11-03T04:20:00.000-07:00

Pay day was just the name of a candy bar to Ralph.

2011-11-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

Cold coffee and runny eggs aside, the waitress with legs for days and a smile to match kept Hank coming back.

2011-11-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Sid was seen that post-Halloween morning on a walk of shame, Gumby head in hands and the smell of beer, stale cigarettes and cheap perfume clinging to his costume.

2011-10-31T04:34:00.000-07:00

Sailor hated his name as much as he hated the sea.

2011-10-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

He stared into the eyes of death in the shape of a double-barreled shotgun held by a blond.

2011-10-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

The long line of sailing ships heading down river was, like the leaves falling, a sure sign of the changing of the season.

2011-10-28T04:32:00.001-07:00

The sculptor rushed headlong towards the river, the word "death" seeming to float among the buildings, but when he reached the bridge he was suddenly struck by the beauty of the dappled sunlight on the water and at once he was himself again.

2011-10-27T04:29:00.000-07:00

For Mr. White loan sharking was a losing proposition, since he was now competing with the bankers.

2011-10-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

All the wailing and gnashing of teeth gave the king a headache.

2011-10-25T04:25:00.000-07:00

The sounds, like distant thunder cracks, meant that the war would soon by on their doorstep.

2011-10-24T04:23:00.000-07:00

Our little friend, now long dead, began to appear in our dreams with alarming freqeuncy.

2011-10-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

Joe's doppelganger wreaked havoc on his personal life.