The End Of The Rodeo For The World’s Greatest Cowboy

The World’s Greatest Cowboy had to be peeled off his barstool and carried home the night he killed a man. The next morning, in the presence of two deputies from the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department, the cowboy sat, elbows on his knees, face protected from the light of day by a latticework of fingers, and tried to remember shooting Edward Delaney. He sucked in air, and smelled burnt powder. He breathed out, and caught a whiff of high-proof mucus. He remembered nothing.

Author: Mike Riggs
Source: The Awl
Published: Jun 9, 2011
Length: 21 minutes (5,298 words)

A Q&A with a Vacuum Cleaner Salesman

Darrell did not cry when the mortgage crisis killed new home construction, putting him out of work. Instead, he packed up his bags and joined his girlfriend in South Florida, where he found a new job as an in-home salesman, pushing expensive vacuum cleaners and air purifiers to snowbirds and other crazy Floridians. While Darrell is but one of hundreds of such salesman in the South Florida area, we have obscured the city in which he works and changed his name to protect his identity.

Author: Mike Riggs
Source: The Awl
Published: Nov 24, 2010
Length: 25 minutes (6,342 words)