I released Teardrop Road on June 23, 2021. I think it was a Thursday. It was pretty devastating to put it out in the world on the big stage. Having your secrets on a blog is one thing. The worldwide stage opens up doubts and fears that I expected but could never prepare myself for.… Continue reading Hollow Man 3: The Pristine
Tag: Milwaukee
Knight of the Wooden Sword
You take a bag full of small rubber bands, two sticks of wood (one longer than the other), and you nail the two pieces of wood together with those crappy white nails, real thin, ribbed, with almost no head at all. When you have the crossbow shape, you take the rubber bands. Here is the… Continue reading Knight of the Wooden Sword
Season of Giving
Mumble lost his job while we tried to send Char to prison. After Less’s abuse became public, our entire house geared up for war. The strain on everything and everyone was crippling. It was never far from the surface. It was in our conversations, in the school we went to, and it waited for us… Continue reading Season of Giving
The Cruelty of the Wind
My grandparents lived in a working-class section on the south side of Milwaukee that had begun to degrade slowly by the time I moved there when I was a child. When my mother lived there as a kid, this was a factory neighborhood. But things had slowly broken down, factories shut down and the neighborhood… Continue reading The Cruelty of the Wind
The Tiger and the Cage
When I was with Tigress, I was taken care of. I was guarded by her unflinching ferocity. No one could mess with me. With Cage, I was in conflict. You need an example. I can see on your face that you want an example. Here you go: I spent the night at her house once,… Continue reading The Tiger and the Cage
The Tigress
In my life, I have seen a few superheroes. Teachers, soldiers, cops, and a few robbers, but there was never anyone who compared to the Tigress. She was my little cousin. A year younger and the boldest and most fearless person I ever knew. She was filled with fuck you from her toes to her… Continue reading The Tigress
The Pool
See, on days like these, shoes were such a pain in the ass. If you brought your shoes, you had to keep an eye on them. You would set them next to the fence, and every few minutes, you had to look to make sure someone had not stolen them. It was a poor neighborhood… Continue reading The Pool
Invasion
You cannot believe the kind of liquid terror that ran through my entire body when Meek told us that next morning. We stared, shocked and betrayed. I felt as if there was a stalking demon behind me. And though I did not want her to repeat herself, she did anyway. “Latin Kings lost last night.… Continue reading Invasion
Duck at Gus’s
If you came and set pins at Gus’s, they paid you a five dollar bill. It was the easiest way for a eight- and nine-year-old to make money in the King’s neighborhood. Gus’s was a bar in the area, with a Pabst Blue Ribbon sign over the door that read “Gus’s Place.” It looked like… Continue reading Duck at Gus’s
The Fatboy
How was I supposed to know what it was when I was standing in front of the most gorgeous piece of machinery I had ever seen? On the road they looked different. There was always a scary guy riding it. Always a guy who needed a bath, wearing a torn-up shirt and scuffed boots. Under… Continue reading The Fatboy
Jesse Teller 