by K. B. Dixon

I call and leave a message because I just don't want to see her tonight. There are nights like that, when I don't want to see her-partly because I am who I am and partly because she is who she is. Lately it's been more because she is who she is than because I am who I am, but I can't tell her that. . . .' So begins 'I Leave A Message,' one of 18 pieces in K. B. Dixon's collection, My Desk and I. Ranging freely from the fractured character sketch to the political satire, from the study of strained relationships to office angst, these are stories that take liberty with the form in the hope of refreshing it. Short on sentimentality, but not necessarily on sentiment, the characters in this collection-a girl in a coffee shop, an obsessed fan, a Little League pitcher-offer comic, thought-provoking takes on life as it is lived in the corners of a culture preoccupied with the hoopla of a brand-named now.