IT IS DONE • by James Mapes
I think I did everything right. My first wish was that the Genie would come back in a week. I know it sounds frivolous, but I felt certain that rushing a set of wishes would just get me monkey-pawed. I… Continue Reading
Stories
CHRISTMAS IN MARCH • by Kevin Tasker
One Wednesday morning in the middle of March, Isaac Thomas arrived at his father’s house to find the elderly poet recumbent on the attic staircase, holding onto a Christmas tree. The tree, which Isaac recognized from his childhood, lay on… Continue Reading
DECENT EXPOSURE • by James Cato
On the first night of vacation I see a human silhouette out the cabin window — a horror film come true. Should I run for the pistol or call for help? Midway through phoning the authorities my wife stops me,… Continue Reading
SHOVELBUM • by MacKenzie Tastan
Paul looked down at the screen in his hands and sighed. It was the last day of September and he could see the looming winter months of unemployment as clearly as he could see the storm gathering overhead. One bolt… Continue Reading
THE DROPLIFTER • by Christopher Owen
Rose was a droplifter. I must admit until I met her, I’d never heard the term. She introduced me to it when we were on our first date at Starbucks. We’d met on a dating site, and after we’d had… Continue Reading
AROMA BOREALIS • by B.J. Koenig
“What’s your favorite color?” she asked. “Radio,” he said. “Three hundred gigahertz,” he added. Her eyes lit up against a gag-reel of emotions, before landing back on confusion. “That’s… not a color,” she goaded. And he knew she’d say that.… Continue Reading
BEESWAX • by Gavin Boyter
Captain Montgomery Ffitch (retired) finished pouring pine needles into the bee smoker and switched off the television. He’d been disheartened to hear the lockdown was due to end. Bojo and his government cronies were itching to open the country up… Continue Reading
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