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TCHOUTACABOUFFA (LIFE ON A RIVER) | Fiction by Amelia Franz
Ashley gazed through the sliding glass doors, over the deck and back yard sloping down to the river. The Tchoutacabouffa was flooding from all the rain. Soon, it would lap at the cedar fence pickets, creep up the walls of the Little Tykes playhouse, with its bright blue roof and shutters. Until she heard him…
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RESURRECTION DRIVE | Fiction by Abigail Myers
Brother Hank called yesterday and said, Brother John, I know it’s not a good time, I sure am sorry to bother you, it’s just that I figured you probably still had the keys from Christmas and you got that big truck, and I said, No, I know, it’s fine, I’ll bring ‘em by tomorrow. He…
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WORKING TITLE NO.6 | Fiction by Nathan Willis
There are people who say they were close to Angela. Super close. People we used to know. They say her accident wasn’t an accident at all and the people who won’t accept this, can’t, because they aren’t strong enough. They say we need to remember that this wasn’t the first time. There was also the…
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WHEN WE WERE SIX | Fiction by Catherine Parnell
A framed photo of a boy and his dog sits on the roughhewn table with claw feet, and the angled cottage rises behind the boy in lines dark as charred bone. The boy squints and rests his hand on the dog’s head. We know not the dog’s name, although there may have been a time…
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THE FIRST TRUE LOVE OF EDDIE CALLAHAN | Fiction by Jen Conley
It was 1993, and Eddie Callahan, twenty-four years old, had three problems: He was in love with a married woman, he was going bald, and he drank too much. The guys in the kitchen of the Sunset Diner, where Eddie worked, thought these things were a hoot. Old Joe, who wasn’t that old, was forty-seven,…
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GETTING IN THE SPIRIT | Fiction by Emily Ver Steeg
She had to drive three hours to meet the man. Cross the border into Tennessee, then Alabama. It was less like driving to another state and more like driving back in time. She’d taken a sick day for the trip, didn’t want to waste her limited vacation days. She got depressed when she thought about…
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BATH TIME | Fiction by V.J. Hamilton
Change is in the air, a secret, indefinable scent. Mr. Smith is back home, and he is singing away, his number one song, Oh! Susanna. His warble falls flat in some places, and he mangles some words, but the song is recognizable by all. Mrs. Smith is sick of Oh! Susanna, so very sick of…
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THE KINGS OF GHOST CITY | Fiction by C.W. Blackwell
“Get out here, boy,” said Mama. She was holding the front door open with a drink in her hand, letting all the cool air out. “You’re about to meet your father.” It was the end of August—two weeks before seventh grade—and my first major growth spurt had taken a toll on my old clothes. Holes…
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CALL ME MR. BLACK | Fiction by Mike McHone
“Mister Black?” A block of ice formed in his stomach. Every nerve in his body told him it was a setup, a sting, and this…, this—what? —eight, nine-year-old kid was the bait. “I’m Nathan.” He scanned the park. Empty swing set. Old lady walking a golden retriever. Mother pushing a stroller. Group of people doing…
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AUGUST | Fiction by Patricia Q. Bidar
When my father left us to live with my fifth-grade teacher over in Navy Housing, my mother’s hands changed. They’d always been rough and dry, bare nails cut straight square. Now that she’d begun working, she visited a salon every two weeks. A pink bottle of Rose Milk lotion stayed on her bedside table. She…