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Learning to Swim
Fiction by Eamonn McKeon They had just arrived back at the apartment. Roy was relieved to be inside, away from the heat. Harry was straightening the dining table chairs and looking around the room. “One more time,” Roy said. “If it happens one more time, that will be it.” Harry did not appear to be…
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Imagining the Woman Known Only as Wife On this Eroded Tombstone in the Old Butler Cemetery off Route 194
Fiction by Janice Leadingham James E. McAnderson1887-1948Co. E. 7th Vol. Inf.Born in West Virginia and His WifeC___1900-1962 C___ spent her growing-up split between her grandmothers—Grandmama, a Baptist who lived in a white clapboard just past the General Store, and Mamaw, who told fortunes with the bones of a bad-luck-cat washed clean in a south-flowing-river to pay Popcorn…
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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…
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Last Rites
by Kim Steutermann Rogers I wake to fog rolling up the hill like it’s late for something. A whirl of misty clouds rushes through the cracks of the old house and slips down the valley. I see shapes and figures in the mist, their hair long, their arms beckoning. Mother always said I had second…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…