by John Gifford

Last one picked in seventh-grade baseball and the girls had said they were already going to the senior prom. Now girls slip into his apartment at all hours, wearing university sweatshirts and nothing underneath, digging through their purses while he measures the potential energy of a bag of chains. You can pay me back, he says.

John Gifford served with the U.S. Marines in the Persian Gulf War and later received his MFA from the University of Central Oklahoma. A lifelong angler and nature enthusiast, he is the author of two books on fishing and has written for many of North America’s leading angling publications. His creative work has appeared recently in Saw Palm, Sleet Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Orion, and The Arkansas Review. He lives in Oklahoma.