More Free Reads

The Middle Finger

A hospital resident confronts a surprisingly urgent case when Mr. Smithers arrives with a plastic bag of ice and a story that gets stranger by the minute.

An Appeal to the American People

In a grave television appeal, Felipe asks the American people to help deport Peter Mangiaracina—and his Cocker Spaniel TJ—from Spain by any cheap maritime means available.

The Humongous Christmas Tree Massacre

In 1970, three student-council friends face a disastrous holiday budget shortfall. Joe’s solution: a midnight expedition for an enormous Christmas tree no one is supposed to cut down.

Up in a Tree

Ross laughs off an old friend’s warning about an unsettled piece of land—until an ordinary project leaves him in an increasingly awkward position.

A Tale of Enlightenment

After years of punishing travel, a New Yorker reaches the remote master Dali Larva at last, carrying one very large question about the meaning of life.

Uncle Prod’s Masterpiece Dinner Theater

A deeply wrong dinner-theater version of Romeo and Juliet, hosted by Uncle Prod, performed with Argyle, and translated by Mescalito—the puppet nobody should have put near Shakespeare.

Bippy the Clown Psychologist

When Daisy Willikers cannot stay awake, her husband sends Bippy: a horn-honking, pipe-smoking clown psychologist with a very unusual method.

The inspiration for the later published short story “Pull the Strings.”

Love is in the Air

A second-person writing exercise that follows a breathless Hollywood romance while keeping the identity of “you” a mystery.

Dirk Dickwell, Sex Therapist

Content advisory: sexual humor and adult language.

A hard-boiled sex therapist takes on a most delicate missing-companion case in this 1940s-noir parody.

My Grandfather

A personal account of the questions Peter Mangiaracina wishes he had asked his grandfather Pietro—about Sicily, migration, work, and the family stories that survived.