excerpt

From C. Binton's forthcoming novel, The Bicycle Fire

"Not many people know about my imaginary friend or my collection of grocery recipts or my inability to say I love you to the people I care most about. Not many people know that inside of my head is a strong desire to say even more than these words I give you now, late at night, while my wife is sleeping in our bed upstairs and our small dog, Sam, is laying on my lap. Not many people know that I have thought about giving up more than once in my life and have isolated myself in small cabins that are built inside of my body, built by myself with whatever cheap scrapwood was laying around at the time. Not many people know that this desire, the one my hands move with now, is both physical and metaphysical and will be here long after I am gone for another to see and swallow and do with what they want."