"The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005"

[fiefoe]

Foreword by the effervescent Davd Eggers includes -
the payload in very short story No. 2, "Accident":
    'You are so lonely, so lonely always, and all contact is contact, and all contact makes us so grateful we want to cry and dance and cry and cry.'

Informational posters about Captain Rick:
    'We just want you to know all the facts before you decide where to buy ocean maps and lard.'

"Florida" / Daniel Alarcón

• A five train runs over and it's quiet, noise swallowing noise.
• "When I get the money, man..." he says, his voice rising as it fades.
• Because of her, I keep lists of countries in my wallet, the way Benny keeps photo- graphs of old girlfriends: the corners of the earth, with no logic or scheme.
  
• My years too will add up. The sum of my disappointments.
  
• Who you are is a question of space and time: the way Benny was Bingo, the way he sometimes still is.
  
• Earning a name, as true and as beautiful as being born.