Victor de Santos’ picture was everywhere but the man standing before me appeared taller and more sinewy than I’d expected. He radiated a presence no two-dimensional image could capture. The difference between a photo and the person was as profound… Continue Reading
Carol dreamt of flight. In sleep she flew past the city limits of her hometown, high above familiar schools and stores and offices. And up higher, where sky became space, became beyond, where there was room to fly, to spread… Continue Reading
The abandoned tannery loomed above Gil Hadrian as he dismounted his horse. The windowless brick building still threw off the smell of stale urine and other chemicals, even after sitting unused for almost four years. Gil squared his shoulders and… Continue Reading
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” He stood at the bottom of the tower, tracking its stonework all the way up to the faint glow in a high window where he could see her silhouette moving against the light. “Rapunzel.… Continue Reading
We occupied the café, waiting, as always waiting, bathed in music constantly spinning from the Wurlitzer 1015, the Bubbler, the smells of bacon and coffee ever present. We waited on doom, on disaster, on mobilization to rescue the hapless. We… Continue Reading
“I want to be a witch,” said the girl. She was a young thing, plump and pale as milk, with watery eyes that barely qualified as blue. As ordinary-looking as it was possible for a child to be without turning… Continue Reading
After our first month together, Naomi said she loved me. I’m used to that. Not to say I’m special. At least not for the reason exes have always given — or would give, if they were honest. I suspected Naomi… Continue Reading
Smoke started coming out of the Corolla’s vents on the freeway and I was still in my costume. To make matters worse, I couldn’t fly. Since Mom kicked me out I had been living at the Sunrise Motel and spending… Continue Reading
Our winter cave is on the mountainside. Mam is there. My brother Dar and I abandon her when we move to the river lodge. We cannot leave her, I say. Dar cuffs my ears. But I see water in his… Continue Reading
Marya stared at the whitish-yellow coffee beans in front of her, shoulders hunched. “Try again,” Dad snapped. Marya bit the inside of her lip. She was trying, but her coffee beans stayed stubbornly un-fermented. She’d never be a proper coffee… Continue Reading