Nothing was ever just the wind or the house settling or probably nothing ever again would be afterwards. Our wait for silence was actually a vigil for the noise we had so missed. Then it came in a squall of reddish dust, choking us a little more with each swirling grain. And so soon our screams filled the air until there was nothing left to breathe. 

A widely published writer and Pushcart Prize nominee, Jason Graff's novella, In the Service of the Boyar, is out now from Vagabondage Press. His first novel-length works, heckler and Stray Our Pieces will be published in 2019 and 2020 respectively by Unsolicited Press and Waldorf Publishing. You can sample the future via his Humorscopes at blueplanetjournal.com. He lives in Richardson, TX with his wife and son.