title: A Goddamn Infinite Emergency: Love Stories
author:  John Mandel 
description: John Mandel was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended art school there and subsequently began a studio practice as a painter. He has had an extensive record of showing and lecturing in the U.S. and Europe. He quit his painting practice and began to write in the nineties. He has taught at Pratt Institute, Art Center College of Design, Otis Art Institute, and currently teaches at California Institute of the Arts. He lives and writes in Los Angeles.
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  1
  
  FLASH FORWARD
  
  A s  warm as May in March, Saturday had begun on a light note, with useful
  work and the promise of romance, and Joe could never have imagined that in
  mere hours he would arrive at this darkest moment of his life. There was an
  old song that had been a hit more than once over the years, twice before Joe
  had been born. He thought of it now: “You Always Hurt the One You Love.” His
  eyes flooded with tears as he shot her dead.
  
  2
  
  AN ORDINARY JOE
  
  N othing  remarkable happened to Joe Mandel until the winter that he was
  eighteen, when over the course of one day, more interesting, strange, and
  perilous events befell him than most peopl