"I saw my friend David three weeks ago, just a few days before
they executed him."
This was the first sentence I read of James R. Cooley's submission, "Regrets." Now we're cookin' I thought, a prison visiting hours scenario. And with the added bonus of it being a Death Row visit, it allowed for even more potential drama between the narrator and his friend, David. And Cooley was kind enough to not let me down, to allow me to have this prison visiting hour story for my anthology as he infused the situation with a great story - something the narrator didn't know at all about his buddy, David, about David's past. Cooley lets the story unfold naturally, doesn't rush it at all, no matter how much he, or David for that matter, probably want to get to that last page, the final few paragraphs. I imagine this was difficult to do, but was thrilled that he did as it makes the story that much stronger, and that much easier to remember, some five or six years after reading it for the first time.
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