Kenneth C. Goldman

You can__ blame yourself for what Socrates did. Those birds came because he wanted them to come, at least a part of him did. The pissed off part. Let that roll around in your brain for a while.__amie considered this. __o, Eddie. The hurt part, that__ what did it.__he crow shrieked again. It seemed louder, and that meant it was closer. Or maybe it was another crow, maybe several. Jamie and Eddie looked toward the sky, listening to the screams. Jamie spoke first.__e can__ let it happen again. We may be the only ones who know the truth about what Socrates can do._ __hat thought probably has occurred to Socrates too.

Socrates is flying. No, he is soaring. The wings behind him beat in a calming rhythm while the cool air rushes past. His wings are all that matter, snapping at the rushing wind like the sails of some great sea vessel, the feathery appendages all he is and all he will ever want to be.His back muscles flex with the effort that takes him high above the ground. He feels the effort, of course, but sweeping into the sky does not require much of one. The sensation is pleasurable, even exhilarating. With flight there is freedom beyond description, an ecstasy bordering on sexual.He has only one destination, and that is to soar higher, to no longer be a prisoner of the earth. Here destinations seem irrelevant, the world below small. Flying exceeds every pleasure he knows. In the immense forever of blue sky, all that matters is flight and his ability to climb higher.Up and up and up...

From "Lady In Waiting" in the anthology The Morgue :Now I have yet to meet the corpse could hold up its end of a conversation, so at most I might whistle while fixin_ one up __tead of engagin_ myself in any small talk that__ goin_ to be so one-sided anyways. But Cindy Flowers_ corpse weren__ no ordinary body when it walked upright, and it sure weren__ ordinary just because it was lyin_ before me in a pine wood box. So for the first time I felt the need to get a few things said to one of our visitors, and I leaned down to get myself real close to her face. Her eyes was closed __ause Pa had already sewed her lids shut.

A kiss is such an amazing thing -- So simple, so complex. The only human act that gives while it receives. Mouth to mouth, it almost seems the eating of one another. Maybe that__ all we are, food for each other. Why, I believe there__ a poem in there somewhere. Another kiss to inspire my muse, Desirée, and I__l tell you something else you don__ know.

From the short story (and anthology containing it) DONNY DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE :Donny acted like he didn__ hear me. __ou can__ send your mom off into eternity looking like that, Artie. She wouldn__ like it._ He reached into my mother__ casket, shoved his fingers into her mouth like it was the most logical thing in the world.__onny, you can__ --!_____ just making her look right, Artie. It__ what she would want._ He tugged hard at my mom__ lips. I knew they were cold because I had kissed them a few moments earlier, and for a moment I felt convinced my friend had completely lost his mind. But when I looked inside Mom__ casket I knew Donny had done something only a best friend would think to do. My mother was smiling again. And she looked just the way I remembered her, the way I would always want to remember her. I got so choked up I couldn__ talk for a few minutes. __inally I managed, __y mother always told me you could make her smile.

From "Lunchtime At The Justice Cafe" :The waitress snarled a grin that lasted just long enough to show a mouthful of stained yellowed teeth, then turned suddenly serious. ___ourse I__ not the one to talk about these folks, I __pose. You see, I used to do a bit of eavesdroppin_ in my day before the sheriff put a stop to that._ __he lifted the stringy blond hair from the side of her face, the opposite side from where she had hidden her pencil. There was a small hole about the size of a quarter where her ear should have been. __s you can see, Mr. McAllister, Sheriff Sweet puts a fairly high price on mindin_ your own business in Justice,_ she added, refilling his cup. __ou want some pie?_ _