He picked up a strip of bacon and dragged it through the yolk until it bled. He took a bite and let himself enjoy it. For a moment, he quit thinking about failure and divorce and dead-end towns. Just ate his breakfast like a man with nowhere else to be.… more
Author Archives: Ben Drevlow
Of Gods and Men and Those Who Dance
FICTION by Stan KemptonIt was a tragedy of what-if’s: a lifeline not particularly interrupted but partially rubbed out to continue as what? a sideshow always placed on the peripherals and pitied? He wanted a girlfriend and wore this search like his disability wore him.… more
Cosmic Brownie
FLASH NONFICTION by Josh OlsenOf all of the food and treats Kelso had eaten in his nearly thirteen years, the one thing we had never given him was chocolate, but on this, his final day, he partook. He loved it, of course. It’s fucking chocolate.… more
Sole
FICTION by Trista Hurley-WaxaliThere is no going back. I found the break in the flesh. I resharpen the knife to be sure I don’t have any parts caught in the blade. The parts left untouched for show are the gills, where it worked hardest to live.… more
A Narrow Bridge
FICTION by Wim HylenLenny puts away his copy of The North American Actuarial Journal and basks in what he’s done. Little red-haired Leonard Reister, detester of gym class and organized sports, human punching bag at Harrison Elementary School, has become a hero.… more
Beer and a Shot
FLASH FICTION by James Keith Smith“Ever give a massage to a big fat dude?” he asks, which is the most Midwestern thing you can say, even in the most Midwestern bar in San Diego. … more
Objects as Possession
FLASH NONFICTION by Blake HC MihmWhat is more singularly human than to adorn our lives with objects. Objects that accompany us to a time bastardized by memory, that remind us in our isolation of people we can no longer hold. That split us open at the hinges and leave us bare to the world.… more
Two Stories
FLASH FICTION by Rebecca KlassenHe was frightened that his wife had gone over the edge, that the neighbours would gossip about the crazy lady taken away in the night. I imagined his daughter’s classmates telling her that her mother had screamed so loudly that all the birds had flown away.… more
Christmas Bird
FLASH FICTION by Kip KnottThere was no oasis. No needles. Only mirages. Like the imaginary tar pit that turned his bebop jaunt into a slog. And the swarm of bees that punctured him with empty stingers. Even the music came to life in the form of a fanged-beak, blood-red buzzard that circled overhead.… more
What You Don’t Fix
FLASH FICTION by Bethany BrunoThe garage still smelled like her. Motor oil and lavender detergent. She used to change the oil in both trucks. Said she liked the quiet under the chassis. Said it made her feel like a mechanic and not just someone’s wife.… more
