-
If You’re Not First, You’re Last
Fiction by Brendan Gillen Looking back, the ending was obvious. The cicadas sang, a sigh of deceit. It was summer, depression heavy in the air, heavy in our apartment, in her heavy slurps of hazelnut coffee. I hated the smell. Made my gut lurch, made my ears burn. We did not yet believe that death…
-
Marty Elmo
Fiction by Drew Coles The very first thing on the very first day of school, the teacher brings Marty Elmo to the front of the classroom to introduce himself. He says his full name is Marty Elmo Flood, he is from Newland, North Carolina, there is a ghost living in his attic, and he once…
-
You Don’t Know How I Get
Fiction by Heather Bell Adams Kayla Ridgeway and I met at the tail end of a mothers’ morning out, of all places. I was packing up the diaper bag and buckling Henry in the carrier. Kayla tipped back a cup of fruit punch and didn’t so much as wince at the sweetness. She had one…
-
Hey My Son
Fiction by Anthony Neil Smith Izzy already had the baby when Jackson met her, but he didn’t know if it was her baby – they looked nothing alike. Izzy was dark, tall and thin. Honduran. The kid? Blonde, chubby, white. Jackson guessed he was about a year old, but Izzy said he was younger. And…
-
Vacancy
Fiction by Kate Deimling I’m in the middle of a mission when there’s a scraping noise, like somebody opening the gate around the pool. I ignore it. I’ve been shot, but if I can make it to the medicine man in the woods, I can get back to full health and do the train heist.…
-
Somewhere, Something, Something
Fiction by Archer Sullivan “Mark went to college,” Caleb said, his face pressed as close to the tank as mine. The room smelled like salt and algae and burned metal. “Yeah…” I started. But I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Caleb’s uncle Mark going to college didn’t completely connect to what I was…
-
Momentum
Fiction by Nan Wigington Whatever happened to Sandy Shores? I blink, think of the women Uncle Len dated, his “conquests” – the freckled Esther Long, the 14-year-old Lena Miles (she looked 20), the fat and loyal Patricia Lovato, then stop. The amusement park? I say My sister lifts a cigarette, puts it to her plump…
-
Clarity
Fiction by James Callan Lying there in the tall grass, not a scrap of clothing to cover his bare body, the bug bites bloomed over Jim’s exposed flesh in scattered, scarlet constellations. He had sprinted across the emerald fields of soy, September sunshine on his back, and collapsed, heaving, laughing, delighted while in the arms…
-
At Such High Temps
Fiction by Jennifer Fliss We’re looking at a field of charred tree trunks. Ghostly, blackened tall things reach into the sky trying to find the light. They’re not all dead, though some have fallen. Many have fallen, but quite a few are still standing. “The lodgepole pine needs fire,” the guide says. “At searing temperatures,…
-
Me and My Boy at Pep’s Point
Fiction by Russell Hehn When I awake from my occasional horror and stare myself down in the mirror of my medicine cabinet, in my underwear, calming my boiling bones with tepid water from the bathroom sink, my mind heads on down Highway 49 where I rode in SUVs and minivans with graham crackers and gummi…