Tenth of December

by George Saunders

We left home, married, had children of our own, found the seeds of meanness blooming also within us.

Because his feeling was, when you said you were going to do a thing and didn’t do it, that was how kids got into drugs.

If only she could say to him, with a single look, Life will not necessarily always be like this. Your life could suddenly blossom into something wonderful. It can happen. It happened to me.

’Twas true: Gossip & Slander did indeed Fly like the Wind in our Town, and would, for sure, reach the Ear of poor dumbfuck Nate soon withal. And finding himself thus cruelly Inform’d of the Foul Violation of his Martha, Nate would definitely freak. Oh, man. What a shit Day.