It 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
Category Archives: FICTION
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
THE BLENDER
FICTION by Jeffrey M. FeingoldSometimes it’s too much, just too much. Really, God, if you’re up there, I just don’t know what’s wrong with you, sometimes. Can’t you give a Jew a break?… more
please don’t leave me
FICTION by Erika SpadavecchiaI was suicidal and bored like every summer in Portland, barely alive. Jonathan had a blonde wife who wanted a new kitchen. I gave him head after he bought me a burrito from Taco Bell and before he told me his wife was pregnant with his third child.… more
Flipped
FICTION by Sheldon Lee ComptonThe movie took on a dissolving pattern, the square screen going soft at the corners, rounding off and he thought not of what he’d done, but what he hadn’t done. And more about what he still could do to balance all that had happened.… more
Curve Ball
FICTION by Joshua D. WetjenAll these years on the road and I’ve never done anything like that before. What really unnerves me is how I barely feel guilty.… more
A Company Man
FICTION by Benjamin GibbonsMy supervisor, Brian Waggingham, says that Olfactory Response Experts are like taste-testers or test-drivers. Instead of dipping fries in new condiments at Craft-Heinz or taking the latest Audi for a spin around a track, we smell cat feces and urine.… more
Barricade
FICTION by Hollis BlackProminent signage warned that the home was protected by “Smith and Wesson,” and the owner had six good reasons to stay away. Walter Jesup didn’t need to spray and pray. He was a crack shot ever since his service days.… more
Nemesis
FICTION by Nicholas De MarinoI don’t want to throw up in front of Medusa again, but she outranks me. “Are you really gonna do this?” she asks like it’s the first time. But it’s not.… more
