hitwheelsnep 
The stool next to me didn’t just rattle; it groaned under the sudden arrival of a mountain. A black leather jacket, thick with dust from the highway and the smell of ancient tobacco, occupied my peripheral vision. I didn’t want to look. This was “The Rusty Nail,” a hole-in-the-wall diner five miles outside of Blackwood, … Read more
“Sign the petition, Elias. We’re doing this before dusk.” Evelyn standard, my seventy-two-year-old neighbor with a spine made of iron and a tongue that cut like a filet knife, shoved a plastic clipboard under my nose. We were standing on my driveway in the late afternoon heat of the Magnolia Estates cul-de-sac. Magnolia Estates was … Read more
“What are you waiting for, princess? Kick it! HARDER!” The voice wasn’t gentle. It was a guttural rumble that seemed to vibrate directly through the heat-baked pavement of my suburban driveway. My seven-year-old daughter, Lily, screwed up her face, her ponytail a mess of escaped strands sticking to her forehead. She put all twenty-five pounds … Read more
“What are you looking at, sweet pea? You look like you just saw a ghost who owed you money.” The voice cut through the monotonous drumming of rain on the aluminum overhang of ‘Sal’s Surplus,’ jerking me out of the numb stupor I’d been trapped in. I blinked, and the blurred world in front of … Read more
“Where do you think you’re going, princess?” The voice, sharp as a switchblade and twice as mean, echoed in the narrow alley. Sarah froze, the handle of her backpack cutting into her palm. Her stomach dropped like she’d stepped off a cliff. It was Kyle. Of course it was. He stood at the far end … Read more
Six-year-old Lily Carter stood at the edge of the highway with no shoes on and a thin pink sweater that did almost nothing to keep out the cold. Her small hands were shaking, but she kept walking. Behind her, somewhere in the darkness, the trailer she had run from sat silent. Inside that trailer was … Read more
The rain had just started when the deep rumble of a Harley echoed down the empty street. Jax “Ironhand” Moretti pulled up outside the old convenience store and killed the engine. Water dripped from the edge of his leather jacket as he swung his leg off the bike. The neon sign above the store flickered … Read more
I pulled into my driveway that rainy evening and froze. My front yard was a mess—muddy footprints crisscrossed the porch, flowerpots shattered, and the wind had blown over the small garden fence. The front door was wide open, swaying slightly in the breeze. My hands trembled as I clutched the groceries, soaked from the storm. … Read more
The old biker was counting crumpled dollar bills at the grocery checkout when I laughed at him and said: “Maybe if you didn’t waste money on motorcycles, you could afford food without counting pennies,” I said loud enough for the whole line to hear, getting laughs from other shoppers. The old man’s hands stopped moving, … Read more
The funeral director grabbed my 73-year-old grandfather by his leather vest and tried to physically drag him out of the church, screaming that “biker trash” wasn’t welcome at a respectable service. It was a staggering miscalculation. The director, a man named Sterling whose suit probably cost more than my first car, tugged at the heavy, … Read more