Many boys, myself included, were like Albert and Hamilton, the boys of today's story by Shane Jimenez. But the death of one's parent is traumatic at any age, and the way Albert and his friend go about handling it leans heavily toward the extreme. It is a coming of age story that doesn't know or care about what age it will actually reach; these boys don't know what they want to hurt, they just know they want to hurt something. Childhood can certainly be rough and messy, and Shane's story is an examination of just how far untended, young masculinity can go.

Conversation Topics: Planet of the Apes, scifi, jobs, writing, literature, teaching, creative writing, books, zombies, dystopian lit, work, childhood, Las Vegas, boys, boyhood.

Today's story was originally published by Writing Tomorrow. 

Shane has published work in the Denver Quarterly, Rain Taxi, The Greensboro Review, Los Angeles Review of Books and elsewhere. 

He has two collections of fiction, Rue The Day and It Can Be That Way Still. 

You can also find more of his work at his website. 

Today's music by 

Muscle and Marrow - Facebook

Their debut album "The Human Cry" is available now. 

Intro and outro music by

MUSH - Facebook & Twitter

If you would like to submit writing to the show between 1,000 and 4,000 words, send it to:

[email protected]

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