Strangetown
an excerpt

“What’cha writing about?” says the waitress, who thinks that her first priority in this diner as a client would be to eat as quickly as possible and get back to her house with air conditioning.

“The phantasmagoria of life,” the girl answers without looking up. She either wants to be an English professor or a writer when she grows up, which is why she peppers her speech with words like phantasmagoria, which is her dictionary.com word of the day.

“Yeah, that sounds like it would take a while,” the waitress says without having any idea what the girl is talking about, and walks away to get the extra ice.

As the sun grew higher and hotter, and the people of the diner came in and left again, several things became clear—that it was very hot, very bright, and very normal. It was also the day that the waitress was murdered.