by John M. Edwards
IN ANTIGUA, A YOUNG JOHN M. EDWARDS RUBS ROLLIES WITH A REAL LIVE RASTAFARIAN—AND LIVES TO REGRET IT.
“BOY! BOY!”
I looked over at the sculpted resort hedge, illuminated by a Tikki torch, and stepped uncertainly off the porch, like a young adult waking up from a Frank W. Dixon Hardy Boys mystery.
“Boy! Boy! [...]
by Kevin McCaughey
Natashas have always seemed long to me. Long-haired, long-legged, comfy at great heights, like in an expensive revolving restaurant.
Which is funny, because I never met a Natasha like that. But, if I ever saw a Russian girl like that, I’d think she would be a Natasha.
My Natasha wasn’t that type at all. She [...]
by Landon Spencer
My friends are concerned.
“Why are you going to Yugoslavia?” they want to know.
“There is no Yugoslavia.” I reply. Like the pop star, Prince, who for a time changed his name to an unutterable symbol, the word Yugoslavia can now only be invoked when preceded by the phrase formerly known [...]
by Catherine Parker
“So you’re bailing on me.”
“Look, I’m sorry Cath. I’m not earning pounds like you are. I just can’t afford it.”
I sighed into the phone, and looked out the window of my tiny flat in London. Rain, rain and more rain. It suited my mood. I had been living in London for eight months [...]
by Charles Kulander
I travel faster than bad news. I comb my hair with a plastic salad fork and use a toothbrush handle to stir my instant coffee, flavoring it with Pepsodent. A money pouch hangs inside my pants, and on my wrist is a Timex with a black vinyl strap-not to tell the time but [...]
by Phil Goldman
“HELP WANTED: FOREIGN MEN NEEDED FOR STRIP CLUB.” I am just desperate enough to reply to this ad. I’m living in Tokyo and I’m broke; I can’t get a steady English teaching gig, or any other form of employment, to save my life. Unfortunately, the days when a native English speaker without any [...]
by Christina Ammon
Sometimes a simple walk down the block feels like the journey of a lifetime
Nine months have now passed since my grandmother moved into Milder Manor Nursing Home. One morning last September she was getting dressed, took a fall, and in that instant was transformed from a commanding, bridge-playing, globe-trotting golden girl into [...]
by Bonnie Morris
Western visitors to Hong Kong, Korea and Japan expect to find teahouses, tea ceremonies, rituals steeped in steeping leaves of tea. But coffee is now a staple of East Asia; in fact, as described in Taylor Clark’s book Starbucked, the world’s largest Starbucks coffeehouse is located in South Korea. And a controversial Starbucks [...]
by Nancy Middleton
We arrived at the St. Petersburg airport a couple of hours before takeoff. In plenty of time—or at least we thought. My mother and I dragged our suitcases to the end of an ominously long line just inside the terminal and waited with the rest of our tour group. The bus that had [...]
by Shelley Seale
Lurching along the dirt road, I gazed out the window at rural Orissa in northeastern India as the car bounced over potholes, sending plumes of red dust billowing behind it. The small villages we passed were as familiar to me as if I had been there only last week. The shacks that lined [...]
