LOSING TOUCH • by Daniel Paton
Bill sat on a bench by the village green. He figured it was a Sunday as the little shop was to be closed all day. He read an old newspaper he’d found until he got so hungry that he couldn’t… Continue Reading
BIRDS • by Wendy Toth Notarnicola
The kid across the courtyard was driving me mad. He kept playing the same annoying ragtime song over and over every day since quarantine began. I’d tried ignoring it, but it didn’t work — I couldn’t even hear myself think… Continue Reading
THE PLANE • by F.C. Shultz
I was seven. That’s not right. I had just had the water balloon birthday party, so it was late summer of 1999. I was nine. The sun had started its dive into the cornfield-covered horizon and my stomach was full… Continue Reading
WHERE MINE WENT • by Kenneth Jakubas
My future went missing at a minor league baseball game. Hurricanes vs. Growlers. It was the hottest day of the summer, and the heat bent the field, putting a mirage over everyone’s head. Then a man turned from the bleacher… Continue Reading
EQUINOX • by Jamie Etheridge
She wants a cookie, chocolate chip. But she can’t eat just one. If she starts, she’ll devour the whole box so she decides to go for a run instead and goes into the bedroom to change into her ‘running’ clothes… Continue Reading
THE DEPARTMENT OF MORTALITY VICTIMS • by Cameron A. Tobias
Impatient. That’s the first word most people use to describe me. My friends always tease me for how easily annoyed I get when waiting for our food at a restaurant. Well, they would tease me. When I was alive that… Continue Reading
THE CANDY JAR • by Sebastian Brown
I told him that when the candy jar was empty, we were over. It was a joke, of course, my way of lightening our eventual breakup. Despite the fact I was quite certain we’d get married, have kids, do all… Continue Reading
INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY • by Gretchen Bartels-Ray
When I was almost five, my Aunt Evelyn discovered that my birthday falls on International Talk like a Pirate Day. “ARRRRRRH,” Aunt Ev brandished a hooked hand and waited until I looked up from my cupcake. “This be the tale… Continue Reading
TRUMPET • by William Hawkins
Your lips on a ram’s horn. A new year. You explained religion as a binary, 0s and 1s. Thou shalt. Thou shalt not. At an early age, or so you told me, you decided your upbringing, centered as it was… Continue Reading
THE FAD • by James Cato
Pleased to meet you. As you know, we start the interview with some standard bureaucratic questions. Do you remember Witchcaps? Right. I remember they were initially designed for edgy supermodels, so their popularity in elementary schools came as a surprise.… Continue Reading