Katie’s fingers shook as she opened the chocolate box and offered the selection to Phil. It’d been a while since she’d used this test, reserved only for third dates. The final compatibility check. After a string of bad hook-ups, her… Continue Reading
Following a series of bone-deep budget cuts, the fire department was severely underfunded, so much so that the firefighters couldn’t afford to maintain basic equipment. Rather than extinguish the flames as usual, the firefighters’ only option was to gather up… Continue Reading
The little boy was alone, playing Cowboys-and-Indians outside, when the deputies came. He was six years old. He was pretending to be a cowboy, an outlaw, taking life and land from the Indians, from the innocent. The white jeep came… Continue Reading
The problem with friendships was the invisible boundary lines and the unscripted definitions that everyone seemed to understand. Everyone except Thelma, who found them mystifying. It hadn’t always been so complicated. On her first day at school, Jenny Smith sat… Continue Reading
The smell of death isn’t death; it’s food. The smell wafts from the kitchen, permeates the hallway, living room, and dining room of the old colonial. It travels up the stairs in whiffs of almost tangible threads into the two… Continue Reading
The school bus can fit about eighty students, give or take, but there are only twenty-six that live on my route. That’s the only reason I agreed to get on this horrific hell-machine in the first place; the number twenty-six… Continue Reading
Tea tasted sweet or bitter depending on her mood, though she always made it the same way every evening. It was bitter on this day of mourning. The teaspoon clicked against fine white china decorated in blue ink. The pattern… Continue Reading
Randle lowered his Stetson and nodded. An after-image singed his retina as he crossed through the gateway to the back of the queue. Along a dusty road, a line of people snaked towards a diner with a neon sign blinking… Continue Reading
“The realtor says your house will be listed tomorrow.” Mom ignores me. We both sit, enthralled by the blank TV screen, in the living room of her apartment. She moved to the independent-living section of this old-folks village six months… Continue Reading
The aliens came down and wanted to help. They gave away free technotricks to big firms like Westworld Petroleum, Royal Dutch Smell, and Coke Oil. The economy boomed and everybody was happy. The aliens just wanted one thing in return… Continue Reading