Her hand grazes something at the bottom of her brother’s tin box of farm toys, something she’s overlooked, but recognizes now. She drops the piglet, falls silent, her nine-year-old heart galloping a fury.… more
Category Archives: FLASH FICTION
The Newly Divorced Guy’s Homestyle Fish Stew
FLASH FICTION by Travis FlattPick a goddamn fish, you’re holding up the line. Just buy whatever’s cheapest. Watch the fishmonger crunch the fish from the ice and plop it on the board to filet. When he asks if he should “bone it,” go ahead and laugh, but say, “No.” Where will you be if you don’t learn to bone a fish? … more
The Heifer
FLASH FICTION by Katie McHughPop handled the calving season better than anyone. He claimed he could smell the fertility in the air, that the scent clung to him like pollen. Each year, the neighbors sought him out as if he were an augur, and he predicted each of their cows’ labors with shocking accuracy.… more
Early Recollections
FLASH FICTION by Karen SchauberWhile everyone else belly laughs at the hullabaloo, and as your father chain smokes another pall mall, you hear his silver lighter flick open and closed, the sharp metallic clank of metal against metal booms over the commotion.… more
Grant at the Lowboy
FLASH FICTION by Chad SullivanWe sit silently awhile, Grant adjusting to having company while I drink my coffee. Other Grants–fake fakes–crowd the door, a half-dozen or more, each well-burnished and impeccably bar-lit, shining like Christmas toys, all backslaps and whiskey breath and haughty wheezing, toasting Galena’s Memorial Day Gold Star Ceremony with platitudes and here-here’s. None of them so much as side-eye Grant at the lowboy, a ghost among ghosts.… more
Swivel
FLASH FICTION by Kathryn KulpaWhen I ask Danny what the poster means he says it’s like all the other stupid school posters and they all mean the same thing. “But what is it?” I ask. “Don’t do drugs,” Danny says.… more
Three Strikes, We’re Out
FLASH FICTION by Chelsea Hanna CohenThe world is ending and I came to this baseball game because, I mean, what else was there to do? Sit in my apartment alone and scroll through Twitter—excuse me, X—reading about the imminent asteroid impact? No thank you.… more
Rules Keep You Safe
FLASH FICTION by Dawn Tasaka StefflerShe suddenly recalls watching a TV show where a group of Asian men dropped tiny, wriggling octopuses into their open mouths like how the Romans ate grapes. Then, the men swallowed the octopuses whole.… more
Three Stories
FLASH FICTION by Ann YuanEver since my wife moved in with my boss, I had been planning on revenge—gun, knife, poison. None of them are attainable for a guy like me. I’m desperate, and desperation made me hungry. All I wanted was a juicy cheeseburger and a bottle of cold beer.… more
Pairing
FICTION FLASH FICTION by Brandon ForinashThe tech guy says, “Everything’s updated, looks like your processor speed is good, you’ve just got a ton of stuff taking up space that doesn’t need to be there.” I ask him what he means, and he shows me that what’s taking space is decades of memories all the way back to when I was in college. I tell him I don’t want to lose them, and he kind of laughs and tells me, dude, that’s why we have the cloud.”… more
