Harlan Booth: Stories

What began as a simple desire to watch birds from the office window became an arms race between a determined homeowner and a squirrel of supernatural persistence. Along the way: a sword fight, a severed tail, a lesson from Vlad the Impaler, Yankee ingenuity involving a flagpole and a box wrench, and the dawning realization that the squirrel may be winning. M v. R is a comic essay about stubbornness, resourcefulness, and the humbling experience of being outsmarted by something that weighs 18oz.

A routine TSA screening goes quietly, awkwardly wrong

It starts with the usual spring tick advisory. Then Helen swears one lands on her neck in in her own driveway. Earl starts telling his “dive bomber” stories again. People laugh. Someone jokes, “When ticks fly.” By August, nobody is laughing anymore.