Issue 149 | The Sun Magazine

April 1988

Readers Write

Flirting

A sock in the arm, a borrowed pencil, a thrown cork

By Our Readers
Quotations

Sunbeams

That sudden and ill-timed love affair may be compared to this: you take boys somewhere for a walk; the walk is jolly and interesting — and suddenly one of them gorges himself with oil paint.

Anton Chekhov

Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

A Dance For Your Life In The Marriage Zone

Marriage is the most dangerous form of love. Count the casualties and you know. It turns many people to stone. We all have seen that. Our society is cracking under the weight of many stone-lives. We all know that. But will we, or will we not, discover all that a man and woman can be? Marriage is not the answer, but it is the most demanding way to live the question.

By Michael Ventura
Fiction

The House Of Esperanza

Esperanza had informally inherited the house from Salvador Escondido, her husband by common law, who one morning kissed her goodbye at the door, left for work in the fields, and never came back.

By James Carlos Blake
Fiction

The Testimony Of The Snake

Yessssss: and every snake must slough its skin, leaving a trail of cellular clothing around the forest, or, as it were, this garden.

By Earl C. Pike
Fiction

Small Talk

I was flirting more that summer than ever before or since, but I had a dull and temporary job at a convenience store, with the prospect of serious employment in the fall.

By Dana Branscum
Fiction

You Go To My Head

When she first sees Sol, he’s telling stories at a party, a party for musicians. All the players sit in the living room, drinking beer and telling jokes.

By Judy Katz-Levine
Fiction

Sam

There was a scarecrow named Sam. He lived in a field of corn, with no shelter from the sun and snow. He wore an old felt hat — gray — and a faded black suit jacket.

By Sparrow