Willy woke up early that morning. It was going to be a big day. He looked around the room for his uniform, but couldn’t find it, so he put on the same clothes he had worn yesterday. It didn’t matter,… Continue Reading
Mom’s ashes are in the urn on the table, and I smile with my lips at people who hold pieces of her. I am greedy for every fragment, but hugs are extortion. “She never got to be a grandmother,” one… Continue Reading
Marlene came home to an empty house and a scrawled note from Stanley. “Meet me at the duck pond at 6:30.” Of course she knew which duck pond. During their nearly twenty-six years of marriage, they’d only ever visited the… Continue Reading
Tiny is the first female marine on the new 1911 base. I spot her the day she arrives, hair long, dog tags fresh and shiny. She has no idea what she’s getting into on this base, or maybe she does.… Continue Reading
The ocean here is wrong. When I complain about it, they tell me it’s because the atmosphere is different. Thinner, with an exotic composition that carries soundwaves differently from back home. I think it’s more than that. For one thing,… Continue Reading
Something hit the hull and it was loud. Just moments ago, we were on a routine flight around the station. Now we’ve stopped. The stirring started immediately, a quaking sensation rattling through the length of the ship. Systems were working… Continue Reading
Sometimes there’s a moment so quiet right after the exhaled breath when there is no breath, and an interval between two lives is suddenly bridged. My name is William, Wendell or Wallace. I’m not sure which. At this moment, it… Continue Reading
Bridget grew up hearing legends of the stone angel that guarded the graveyard, but she’d never needed her help until now. Draped in a flowing robe with wings outstretched in a righteous fury, her gaze dared passersby to disturb her… Continue Reading
Joey Huff’s parents, the only parents he’d ever known, were childless, near 50, with little exposure to children when they brought him home from the adoption agency. They were so happy that they spoiled him from the get-go and, from… Continue Reading
Not long after my release, I started buying fighting fish. Now I can’t stop myself from stopping off at the pet store practically every day and buying one or two more. I live in a house with seventy-two aquaria and… Continue Reading