Small. Brightly colored. Deadly to the touch.
They are somewhere on the earthen floor when her pains start. Inside, outside. It’s hard to tell. The floor is a flat plane, cool and hard. June bugs click and thud; it is only May. The children lounge throughout the house like languid cats,… Continue Reading “Nickels on Eyes by Leslie Lindsay”
The last lion lives in a false Savannah measuring about three kilometers. He was moved there after all of the jungle habitats had disappeared, and it was too hot outside for much to live. He is owned by an extraordinarily wealthy man he rarely… Continue Reading “The Last Lion by C.M. Crockford”
Corvair Every morning when my history teacher, Mr. Meloy, pulled his white Chevrolet Corvair into the teachers’ parking lot, I watched from afar. Other boys watched because the Corvair was still a novelty in 1961, but I watched because I was in love with… Continue Reading “Cibola by Andrea Lewis”
The realtor keeps calling the place an investment. The houses are new and shiny, like paper cutouts, and the trees along the side of the road are feeble, flimsy things, providing barely any dappled shade. Supposedly, the houses will be worth more when the… Continue Reading “Manifesto by Greta Hayer”
Clouds the color of absinthe blotted out the evening sun, the air electric with thunderstorms yet to arrive. Marco stopped near the crabapple tree, the confetti of its spent blossoms littering the ruts where his daddy’s truck used to sit. The green Ford had… Continue Reading “Twister by Elizabeth Fletcher”
Julia returned home from her business trip with the small state of Luxembourg in her purse. Her husband, Mike, knew something was up right away and wasted no time in confronting her over his homemade moussaka that evening. “You’ve done it again haven’t you?”… Continue Reading “Luxembourg by Rick White”
I bought the 28-day class pack because the yoga studio wrote a Hemingway quote on the chalkboard outside: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” After months of dissecting each other in front of a therapist, a mediator, then finally a judge—a black… Continue Reading “New Moon by Rebecca Ackermann”
It’s my turn next to venture down the stairs. Set an alarm on your phone, Sheri advises, then go down and make sure they’re not too hot and heavy. I dread the moment. When it arrives, I exaggerate each step with the balls of… Continue Reading “Vigilance by David Kesmodel”
The shopkeeper saves the best liquorice for him, taking out the torpedoes and adding more rosettes. Sometimes he comes in late, just when she’s given up hope, and she’ll still pretend to measure it out, weighing it carefully, adding a little more just so… Continue Reading “Allsorts by Sarah Salway”
I am learning to breathe underwater. What most people don’t know is that the lungs are a muscle; we can make them bigger, if we want. I heard this in science class and that’s how I decided it, that I’d train my lungs to… Continue Reading “In the Lake Beside the Interstate by A. Kathryn Davis”