The Kid -- Charlie Samuels -- was poor. Or more accurately his parents were. This meant Charlie had to eat a poor child's breakfast: cereal and orange juice . He ate this every morning without variation. By the time he was awake his parents would already be at the motel...

Marc Love cruised the streets of  Gas City stopping at four way stops, letting the pedestrians cross in front of his car, giving them a nice wave. He had a small apartment, paid for with cash. It was cheap so no one questioned where he got all that cash. He...

Marianna had sunk into life on solid ground. Her savings taking a hit as she put down a deposit on an apartment near the cafe.  Gas City , she never thought she would work there, but she needed a job. She thought about driving off. She considered going all the...

Marianna at noon went into the diner. It smelled the same as the day before, she thought about sitting in the same booth, but didn't want to draw suspicion. She sat so she could see the kitchen door. The waitresses would go in an out, and she was hoping for...

Chris shaved for the first time in five days. On earth he shaved everyday. Clean shaven was the way. He didn't look good in a beard. His was patchy. Looked like pubes. Unlike Keith who could grow a majestic beard. Cal was clean shaven. But Chris didn't know whether that...

It's not about what you know. It's about what you can prove.

The thought rolled in his mind as he continued chewing onto the last remaining skin of the apple. He wouldn't swallow it for another ten minutes or so. Not until he arrived at the cafe and he could wash...

One of the young kids with long hair at the table full of young kids with long hair loudly asked, "have you seen the blue man in real life?"

"Nobody's seen him in real life," another kid groaned. Then the kid who had asked the original question groaned. He realized the...

He had to cart in a wheelbarrow three quarters filled with mostly Andrew Jackson s and Abraham Lincoln s to buy his milk , eggs , and sliced bread for the week. But he never complained because he was a good ole fashioned REAL AMERICAN.

While in the checkout he heard...

I'll never forget, for years after  college graduation I feared  hunger so much that I had no mindspace to be worried about anything else.

This is why I could never get on board with what everyone else seemed to be upset about. All I could think about was how I'd get...

It was late. The time a healthy person wouldn't eat. Let alone be awake. But he had slept all day and had nothing more than two slices of toast with peanut butter rubbed onto them. As soon as he stepped out into the thick summer air the scent of alcoholics'...

The first thing she did upon arrival was check the fridge. It was indeed stocked. Two dozen eggs , a half gallon Whole MIlk , butter, one plastic container of salad greens, one plastic container of baby spinach, deli sliced smoked hickory turkey, deli sliced yellow cheddar, deli sliced smoked...

When Jimmy bought home a dozen  eggs for a dollar I asked him how that was even possible. It was on sale he said. But I just couldn't imagine how eggs could be that cheap. Like I mean how can anybody make money off selling eggs, for a dozen a...