Preservation by Isaac Tan
The four books were scattered on the table. Four additions to my library and three additional reasons for my mum to nag at me: messiness, compulsive spending, and not caring for my books. The same...
View ArticleTotal Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, January 31, 1999 by Brianne Holmes
We stumbled out of warm cocoons at the urging of Daddy’s voice, fingers fumbling with shoelaces, half excited, half asleep. “They call it a blood moon,” said Mom from the front seat, where she balanced...
View ArticleA Gentlemanly Transaction by Stephen Mander
No. This is absolutely true, I swear. I saw this guy walking his dog in the park, and I thought, you know, that he’d be good for some. So I walked up to him, said hello and that, complimented him on...
View ArticleInvented Medals by Ben Hogwood
Nan said he never talked about the war much, except when he was drunk, when he would hammer at the piano with his fists, sing There’ll Always be an England, and toast the names of men she knew nothing...
View ArticleThere’s More Than One Way… by Kari Strutt
I walk Tango at the off-leash park near our house. My walking routine overlaps the neighbors’. Moms stroll babies, pairs of silver haired ladies walk poodles or spaniels or kind yellow labs. My routine...
View ArticleConfidence by Stephen Mander
Two Weeks Before I’m going to enter that short story competition even if I’ve never written anything before, and I’m going to win. And after I’ve won I’m going to see my story anthologised, and once...
View ArticleA Boy and a Wolf by Rohini Gupta
In the dim, narrow corridor, leading to the nursery school, a small boy waited. “Stand right there while I park the car,” his mother had told him, “I will take you up the stairs and into the school.”...
View ArticleNonsense by Miranda Forman
Susan Wolfenbarger’s hand had recently begun behaving badly. Of its own volition, it jumped and danced, especially at critical moments—while making decisions, making soup, and making love. Her husband...
View ArticleThe Ark by Kevin Wilson
The animals were all dead, so forget about two by twos. Forget about personal objects; we had the clothes we were wearing and sharpened sticks. Well, we had the Ark, too, but we did not think of it as...
View ArticleDedication by Alfred Archer
Book One: Human Attachment by Colin Lowland This book is dedicated to my girlfriend Rose. This book could not have been written without her love and inspiration. Book Two: The Kin Relationship: A...
View ArticleMy Temple by J.M. Jones
The only time I notice a minor side effect of my heart is when I’m sitting on my toilet, locked in my bathroom, which is attached to my office, adjacent to Senator Field’s office, on the fifth floor of...
View ArticleYou Wanted a Reunion by Paul Beckman
“You were a liar, cheat, thief and con man,” my brother said to me after he hugged me hello and steered us to the airport bar. He waved the waitress over and ordered a double gin and tonic.” Don’t get...
View ArticleCrisis by Eric Janken
Out of all of the boys who turned into men who lived on our block, Fred was the one who was called on by the Lord. I hadn’t seen him since I left North Carolina for Washita. That had been about two...
View ArticleThe Wanderer by Ravi Venkataraman
The wanderer was an old man. Omnipresent. Walking about in Old Downtown, up and down the broken-up sidewalk and rubble. Ambling through New Downtown, past white-collared foreigners and cool...
View ArticleThe Sled by JD Greene
Ida stared at the eggshell wall of her drab county office. In younger years, she might have burned with humiliation. Instead, she just stared with numbness. She made no effort to block out or hide from...
View ArticleWhen The Wind is Just Right by Amy Morris-Jones
His knuckle catches the corner of my eye, and even before the stars cloud my vision, the litany of apologies starts. He says he’s sorry he’s been drinking too much and for getting fired again. To the...
View ArticleI Heard by Debra Danz
The silent white noise buzzed like a million earthly things were living inside my head. I heard all of it, and I heard none of it. I didn’t hear the butterfly flutter as she rapidly flew past me on her...
View ArticleTransmogrification of Solar Energies and Pathologies of the Psyche by J.M. Jones
I won’t lie to you. It was not how I saw myself going. The niggling details prick the ego. But it was swift, that much can be said. It was a loathsome winter. Worms beneath the icy tundra, their pink...
View ArticleNancy by Coco Mellors
My parents told me they’ve stopped fighting in the car because it upsets their dog, Nancy. Once, when my sister and I were nine and seven, my father tried to drive the car into a motorway barrier...
View ArticleThe Cusp by Adam Janos
Roberto Núñez had come to America to play baseball but had ended up an avid baseball card collector instead. It had started with a talisman, the card of 35-year-old rookie Jim Morris that he kept in...
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