by Bill Stenson It’s not healthy for anyone to dwell on their own mortality, and Marsha Hamilton believed that, and had never been one to engage in such thinking. So long as I can chew my own food, wipe my own arse and do my weekly crossword puzzle, I don’t worry about going anywhere. This…
Tag: Fiction
Heart of a Poet
by C.W. Bigelow The notification by registered mail was a shock to me. My grandfather died almost two years before at the age of ninety-six, and I had totally swept that memory clean. Because of the length of time, an inheritance was reason for the first surprise. The other was that we hardly knew each…
Raise a Little Hell
by Michael Chin Halloween 1996, Mike was thirteen and Shermantown was haunted. Sara Dogwood went missing on the bike ride home from school and the town lost its mind, witch-hunting up suspects, reporting and debunking sightings of the girl. Breaks in the case rumored all the time. Dead ends. The specter of some child abductor…
Standing and Stages
by Grace Jaycox Your father ushers you up on the stage with three other people, one of which is your mother. You look up at her as she adjusts the microphone so it’s the right height for her. The fact that you’re too small to reach any of the microphones was supposed to be a…
Pajama Tales
by Abhishek Udaykumar It was when she said ‘subliminal,’ one afternoon, that I found myself quite still. Once again – in the cool corridors, like a mired leaf still staggering after autumn. She had said nothing after that. I listened to the carpeted choir that rose to the ceiling. Fitting myself perfectly in a zeitgeist…
The Cargo
by Devin James Leonard It was after midnight and had been storming since the start of Buckley and Teale’s three-hundred-mile drive across New York State. Two hours into their journey, just outside the Winona State Forest, the snow blanketed the road, causing the wheels to lose traction and slide unpredictably. This was dangerous weather for…
Faith
by Gary Zenker “It’s not whether it actually works or not,” my cousin Seymour explains enthusiastically, “but whether it has the possibility of working.” That was the basis for all of his success and for the failures of anyone whom he encountered. Possibility and faith. “I know it will work given the right conditions.” I…
Told You
by Travis Flatt “I dare you,” the day nurse, Kaylee, says. For the tenth time, I’ve warned her of the severity of my seizures. It’s easy to understand how Kaylee, who’s a student, twenty-three at most, cat-eyed, jet black-hair, knuckle-bitingly gorgeous, might provoke a man here on the Monitoring Unit to brag like he’s the…
Protected: That Boy
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Protected: The Properties of Water
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.