Short stories published in 2003

Listing 34 stories.

An AIDS patient in California steals an experimental government tech that cures his disease and enhances his human performance. He and his friend concoct a plan to release the tech into the general population.

A seventh-grade English teacher copes with the recent death of her father and assigns a memoir that her students love reading. However, their parents question her for her pedagogical choices because of the swear words and provocative topics in the book.

A minister’s young daughter, whose mother suffers from depression, wears a controversial costume to an evangelical church gathering. While hiding from adults, she stumbles upon an exorcism.

True love for the wrong person can burn a house from the inside out

Stuck in a loveless marriage for over forty years, a retired couple moves into a senior living apartment with the renewed promise to work on their marriage. When the opposite turns out to be true, the elderly husband attempts to find new love with a much younger woman who isn't what she seems.

An Afghanistan veteran moves into shared lodgings in London with a consulting detective and soon becomes embroiled in the detective's investigation into a royal murder.

Several men become involved in a suspicious gambling ring where secret messages are being anonymously sent out about the race's winners. When one of the men suspects another of cheating, he sends someone to kill him, but the hitman struggles to complete the job as he becomes distracted by drugs and various women.

When her child refuses to take off his Halloween costume because he’s decided that he’s a Mongolian nomad, an ESL teacher in Portland finds herself stuck in an absurd conflict that further strains her suffering marriage.

In the present day, an eccentric elderly docent leads a group of tourists through the Lee Chapel in Lexington City, Virginia, treating them to a vibrant speech blended with historical curios and an ounce of information about her own life.

A car dealership owner and his long-time girlfriend embark on a business road trip to Idaho. The events of the journey do not bode well for the couple's relationship.