"The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005"

"Very Short Story No. 2: Accident"
    ... and you almost killed him and because you got so close but didn't, you want to fall on him, weeping, because you are so lonely, so lonely always, and all contact is contact, and all contact makes us so grate- ful we want to cry and dance and cry and cry. In a moment of clarity you finally understand why boxers, who want so badly to hurt each other, can rest their heads on the shoulders of their opponent, can lean against one another like tired lovers, so thankful for a moment of rest.

WE JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW ALL THE FACTS BEFORE YOU DECIDE WHERE TO BUY OCEAN MAPS AND LARD

"Florida" / Daniel Alarcon

• A five train runs over and it's quiet, noise swallowing noise.
• ... this dream that keeps getting postponed.  "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 photographs of old girlfriends: the corners of the earth, with no logic or scheme.
  
• I'm not as fucked up as Benny, but I reason that I'm young yet, that my years too will add up.
• Who you are is a question of space and time: the way Benny was Bingo, the way he sometimes still is... And Bingo had a street and a neighborhood and a crew and a history so specific that now, he is gone. Benny never left. The people who knew Bingo have died or moved away. Now Bingo only reappears when the past comes in from Florida on holiday.
  

* "Tiger Mending" / Aimee Bender

__ I become her ripped hemline.
__ That' s the thing with handmade items. They still have the per- son's mark on them, and when you hold them, you feel less alone.
__ They were very still-minded, like my sister,... That ability to have the hands forget they are hands.