Jesse Teller

Category: Teardrop Road

  • Billy Badass 1

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    They would play frisbee on the hot days, their t-shirts tucked in their belts they would soar the disc down the street sometimes in teams of two. I once watched Demon Duck run across the front bumper of a ’71 Chevelle and leap off the other side to catch a frisbee. It was an art…

  • Benders 3

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    They played basketball in the afternoons under the viaduct down the street. We would see them walking the alley on their way there and it was like watching a movie. They moved as a crew. A long line across the alley, Joshua in front in the center, bouncing the ball and walking. As I sit…

  • Benders 2

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    In the apartment below us lived a mulatto kid named Kerry. He was big and ugly and mean, and he hated living in the neighborhood as much as the Benders hated him living there. There was always beef between the two forces. Kerry was a badass there was no stopping. He was an apt criminal…

  • The Benders 1

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    Ten and a new neighborhood. This was still poor white. A few blocks south was a neighborhood run by a phantom gang. I knew little about them. One day when I was eleven there was a march to their turf by the Benders to settle a robbery that had happened in our neighborhood. They met…

  • Rise of the Storyteller 37: The Secret to Teardrop Road

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    I love you and I can’t live without you. I love you and I can’t live without you. I love you and I can’t live without you. And it’s on a loop in my head now, words I spoke, words I wrote, words that consumed my every breathing, every living moment. For I loved my…

  • Rise of the Storyteller 36: The Beginning of My Life

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    “If you make them leave, all of them, you can do anything you want to me all night.” It’s probably three o’clock in the morning, and this is Trashy’s last effort. Trashy is a girl who knows she’s hot. She’s been convinced by every man who ever touched her, every boy who ever looked at…

  • Rise of the Storyteller 35: Stained Glass Light

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    There were four ways to get to college, as described to me by mother when I was a freshman in high school. 1) You were born rich, filthy rich, and it was paid for by your parents. 2) You got perfect grades from sixth grade to senior year and you got a scholarship. 3) You…

  • Rise of the Storyteller 34: One Last Bite

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    There was a pounding on my door that didn’t wake me from my stupor. Its suddenness, its violence didn’t alarm me or cause me to jump. I took it as easy as the next breath. And though the pounding on my door was oppressive and angry, it was almost as if I had been expecting…

  • Rise of the Storyteller 33: Conditional Love

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    A man once told me a mother’s job is to teach the child about unconditional love. The father has a more difficult job. Of course, the father loves the child unconditionally, but he must teach the child about conditional love. He must hold the child accountable for his or her actions. If the child doesn’t…

  • Rise of the Storyteller 32: Draconic

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    One day, while I was on the phone with Draconic, her sister yelled from the background, “Is that Weiner Schnitzel?” Draconic hissed and the sister laughed. We went on talking. I pretended I did not hear her nickname for me, because I knew what it meant. She could not get me hard. No matter how…