The One-in-a-Million Boy

by Monica Wood

clear his intention to outlast her. She relented, took the check, said nothing, and his head calmed. The place looked deceptively renewed. Late-May flowers popping up everywhere, windows a-twinkle, and another collection of things set out for the trash man. “Cleaning out again?” he asked. “Just the things I can’t bear.” What she meant remained a mystery. He took stock of the rejects: a stuffed chair, a blender, a table lamp, some flatware. Then he caught it, sitting apart from the rest: his first amplifier, two watts, a present from his thirteenth birthday. “Isn’t that my Marvel?” They

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