Fledge by David Daniel

Our next-door neighbors in Baltimore lost their sixteen-year-old son to fentanyl. In the dead of winter we moved into the bungalow beside them, yet did not meet them ’til the middle of spring. In those intervening months we had heard only hearsay about a nameless event that had befallen their family. Our kids were young at the time so I couldn’t help but eye the derelict treehouse they had out back, nor the netted trampoline overrun by ivy. The morning I finally met him he was perched atop a metal extension ladder, mending a black hole in his second story siding. A family of starlings had nested there, he said. Not a week later a for sale sign appeared out front. The evening of their moving day I was boiling spaghetti when I saw the two of them fall to their knees in the side yard between us. With their eyes shut and their heads bowed they each grabbed at fistfuls of grass as if wishing to summon the spirit of their son from that sunless patch of soil.

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DAVID DANIEL — David is an American writer with current and forthcoming stories in Doubly Mad, BULL, Of the Book, Cloudbank, arc, Ink In Thirds, Within & Without (Editor’s Choice), As Surely As the Sun, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Severance. 

Art by LINDY GIUSTA — Lindy (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based, queer artist whose work explores themes of humanity and vulnerability through a distinctive blend of mixed media. When not creating art, they can also be found playing mandolin, exploring NYC, reading voraciously, or drinking copious amounts of quality coffee. Lindy’s work can be found on the covers of Weird Mag Lit, Peatsmoke Journal, The Hemlock, and more! Their work can also be found on Instagram: @lindydoesart.