Your great-grandson Justin is coming over. You pull out the secret candy stash, hidden from your daughter who worries after your diabetes. Your hands creak and crack as you shuffle cards onto the spotless oak table Jack bought you. The… Continue Reading
She looked good in sundresses. But then again, what girl doesn’t? Z. was a woman of enormous appetites (for breakfast she took eggs Benedict with grapefruit and half a bottle of Gaston Chiquet) who lived in a garlanded townhome halfway… Continue Reading
His lashes are so dark against his skin. Unable to resist, I kiss him gently on his temple. He stirs, swallows, and rolls on his side away from me. I run a hand softly over his shoulder, down his side,… Continue Reading
At seven that morning, as she did every morning before work, Alma Day lit a candle for her husband and set it on the small altar she had made for him in her grief support group. Then she walked to… Continue Reading
From a distance the statue looks like a giant marine in full tac-armour, helmet on and faceplate engaged so you can’t tell gender. There’s a rifle, looks like a Xenon Mark Two, propped against one knee and they’re sat with… Continue Reading
‘Bodmin Beast Body Count Reaches Fifty’. Charley had scrawled the potential headline in her notebook. It was a sensational headline, an alliterative headline, and fifty was a solid, attention-grabbing number. It was, in fact, the kind of headline that could… Continue Reading
I found the mattress on Facebook Marketplace. Listen to me when I say it was the mustang of mattresses. As plush as hugs from the Charmin bears. It felt like a world-class bowl of mac and cheese after giving up… Continue Reading
After excusing myself from the party and saying goodnight to everyone in the bar, I took the train to Gunma. In less than an hour I was threading my way through the back streets of Maebashi, head down to avoid… Continue Reading
Joey’s brave, I’m smart, and we’re leapfrogging pumpkins at midnight. Worse, a monster with a pitchfork is chasing us. We saw the bodies. He can’t let us get away. Hurdling a pumpkin patch, you need a good flashlight. My piece… Continue Reading
She kept Allen’s ashes in a hexagonally shaped enamel box decorated with a mandala of inlaid mother-of-pearl. The workmanship was splendidly intricate and when light played upon its face the box was lustrous, each diamond piece of the pattern shining… Continue Reading