THE LANDMINE • by Antony Paschos
Everyone in the village knew that Mitros was humping my wife; but what can you do? All I had belonged to my father-in-law: the house, the land, the donkey — hell, I had even worn an old suit of his… Continue Reading
Literary
WE’RE ONLY HERE TO SKATE • by Jason Schreurs
We’re screaming down the highway in a VW bug and I’m sitting in the back seat, my ass burning. Will driving. Martin shotgun. Me doomed. “Um, guys, I think there’s something wrong back here,” I stammer. “What’s up, dummy?” Will,… Continue Reading
PROUD FLESH • by Teresa Burns Gunther
In her English class, Gillian was assigned an ode. She wrote to the jagged Zorro scar above her knee from the August night she taught Benny to surf in the rickety trailer camper their father towed. They’d been banished from… Continue Reading
WANDERER • by Russell Heidorn
Natalia’s wrinkled, spotty hands fluttered over the piano keys like a butterfly dancing on the breeze. Elegant, beautiful, serene, the sound of the aging instrument felt like a long lost friend. Her favorite was The Seasons by Tchaikovsky. Each movement… Continue Reading
OUR HOUSE ON THE CLIFF • by Lindsey Baker Bower
Our house on the cliff had damp walls that huddled over us as we slept. Ma and Mary shared the bed in the loft while the rest of us kids slept below on pallets we kept behind the stove during… Continue Reading
SOMETIMES A GIRL CAN WAIT SO LONG • by Francine Witte
Sometimes a girl can wait so long that love goes bony and cold. Take, for example, my Harry. Another Valentine’s gone. The usual chocolates and roses. I will eat them and smell them. They won’t be a ring. I will… Continue Reading
THANKSGIVING • by Gordon Pinckheard
The day started tense. Not what Marie wanted on her day off work. The family all knew that there was to be a “proper” Thanksgiving dinner. And then Dad said he was going to join the lads at Dave’s to… Continue Reading
SURVIVAL • by E.V. Zukowski
I read an article recently about harp seals. How their mothers abandon them just twelve days after they’re born, left to the elements, floating on ice in the frigid ocean. Biologists say it teaches the seal pups survival, lessons of… Continue Reading
SWIMMING LESSONS • by Dakota Mantyka
My dad never learned how to swim. As a kid, it always made me nervous because he had to drive over a bridge to get to work. What if he drove into the lake? Or what if he pulled over… Continue Reading
NOWHERE • by Rory Say
He only sees her sometimes. Maybe once or twice a year, if that, and only then when he’s caught off guard. When, preoccupied with exhaustion or the grim necessities of survival, she slips his mind for a moment that allows… Continue Reading