The next time your dad calls from Atlantic City, you do as you’re told. You open the safe, pack the cash, and head to Western Union.… more
Category Archives: FICTION
DUST OF THE BOOTHEEL
FICTION by G. A. RiversJerome recognizing the man’s profile, asking himself if karma really was the bitch everyone said it was or did payback simply come down to a man taking action after he’d decided enough was enough?… more
Black Spots on Roses
FICTION by Rita TaryanBut today, Gary leans forward, breathing emotionally like a heavyset wolfhound, pained, invites me animally into his personal funk (I don’t mind the intimacy, I’m in a good place in my life now), and pulling me in close with his big brown furry eyes—they’re frame-draggers reflecting morass—he moans, “It’s over. It’s over.”… more
Weather
FICTION by Fabiana Elisa MartínezI am writing this to be able to edit my own story as I edit the shallow articles magazines demand from me. My words are a mirror made of scrawny spider legs called letters on an immaterial paper I plan to bury in a blue memory stick labeled “IRS-docs-1994.” Who would open such a dreadful promise after I am gone?… more
Little Girl in The Mirror, Where is Your Home?
FICTION by Lee Wing TungThere is a little girl lurking just out the corner of your eye. She hardly ever speaks, and you hardly speak either. She has never done anything to you. She just stands in the distance, looking at you. Looking, looking, looking. When your eyes meet in the smudged mirror, she stares back, faintly sad.… more
Stranded
FICTION by Rekha ValliappanThe mammoth carcass that had washed up from the sea was pearly gray and larger than anything I had ever seen. Not even my school bus would compare. A glimmer of sun glistened over it like the sea’s shedding skin, leaving what remained bound to the beach, wet, bloated, damaged and stranded.… more
Spirals
FICTION by John M. FredericksI’ve got a small .38 snub nose with a slick oak handle and a silver barrel holstered nice and tight underneath my jeans. I’m going to rob Danny Boy.… more
The Righteous Shall Be Called to Dance
FICTION by Joey HedgerHarold leaned back into a floating position, his arms outreached to either side. He stared upward at it all. Sunlight. Birds. Clouds. The arc of the universe moving in a torquish progression from one horizon to the other. It calmed him.… more
Cheeseburger Man
FICTION by D.M. Chávez-SolisBecause Joe’s refraining from guzzling but is nursing his first, icy, Friday night beer but longs for a serious chug… because he understands that his independent third-grader, soon to be in fourth grade, is eager to impress her old dad… Joe has promised to wait and watch from the Falcon until everything is ready for pickup.… more
Art School
FICTION by Alex MillerJoan looked different in the dark. Her shadow-self manifested savagery and lust. Neal imagined her as queen of the demon army, feeding off the dark energy generated by the adoration of her legions.… more
