Michael Croley, born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Corbin, Kentucky, is the author of the story collection Any Other Place, winner of the James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Weatherford Award. He is also the coeditor of Midland: Reports from Flyover Country. A graduate of the creative writing programs at Florida State University and the University of Memphis, Croley teaches at Denison University and is on the visiting faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

One Such as This

An iStory

by Michael Croley

After the bars are closed and the restaurants shut down. After the last of the fluorescent disappears into darkness and all that’s left are a few neon beacons on what were once crowded streets, I hear wind created by cars, tires strumming pavement, and I think of that night—one such as this—with our backs against the brick wall in the alley, the shared flame of my Zippo, and the quick brush of your fingers along mine.

People on couch
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