Too Sweet, from Hollywood and Crime. During 1966, Tom Hickey goes looking for his seventeen-year-old son Alvaro, who has followed a girlfriend, a singer, to Hollywood. Minutes after Tom finds Alvaro and his girl, the three of them witness the girl’s mentor get shot down while crossing the intersection of Hollywood and Vine. PG

The Enemy, first published in Crime Through Time. It’s 1943, Tom Hickey owns a supper club, Japanese Americans are getting herded into buses for “relocation,” and it looks as if janitor Fred Takahashi murdered and robbed a courier on his way to the bank with Tom’s money. G

The Curse, from MSS. Otis Otterbach, at fifteen, while haunted by death and driven by sex, discovers his gift, which is also his curse and his destiny. R

The End, first published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, In 1971, during the Manson trials, Otis takes mescaline, goes to Disneyland, and gets mistaken for Charles Manson. PG

Cars, published in Esquire, honorably mentioned in Best American Short Stories. Beginning with the death of his father, whenever Henry Swift's life appears under attack, he arms himself with a different car. PG

Ophelia in Death, from Virginia Quarterly Review. An american rock musician travels to Greece with a nightclub cover band and finds himself enchanted by a lovely Navy brat with a mean and protective father. PG

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