Every October twenty-seventh, my in-laws are the first ones to call. They’re early risers who think it’s perfectly okay to dial the phone and wish someone a happy birthday before the sun’s even come up. I was running late this… Continue Reading
Three days before Christmas, Mary slipped in the shower and cracked her head on the soap dish. I found her half an hour later. The water was long cold and her skin had turned purplish, like an overripe plum. Her… Continue Reading
Fred sighed and rubbed the ball of fire in his lower back and opened the door. In the short term losing the job could be good for his back, no more hunching at a desk all day, but long term?… Continue Reading
As Dave lowered his head, she swiped her hand across his face. Fingernails scored his skin, and he felt blood on his cheek. Her face showed no emotion. Her eyes, deep in the dark shadows of her sallow complexion, were… Continue Reading
We crouch across from each other, on our sides of the cage. It is only the two of us. My shirt, old and filthy, is torn just above my chest and is stained red from a healing wound. I left… Continue Reading
The morning sun paved the hall’s hardwood floor in amber light as Adam shoved his lunch into a leather satchel. He tugged his coat off a hanger, and she gave him a kiss. “Good night,” she said. “Good night?” He… Continue Reading
Jandwat knew he was going to copulate tonight. No matter what his wife said. “If we aren’t home for the latest holo-episode of Galactic Crime Investigators, there’ll be no mating ritual,” she said. Jandwat rolled his eyes as he set… Continue Reading
What is it with shops abbreviating everything? You’d think there was a law in England against using whole words: newsagents sell cigs, greengrocers sell tom’s and pot’s (always with the apostrophe) and apparently furniture shops have taken to purveying something… Continue Reading
When we go to sleep, everything is normal. When I wake up, my husband is a frog. I know it’s him by his little froggy eyes, which look at me just the way my husband’s did. “Did” or “do”? Do… Continue Reading
Owen was out in the shed, sorting junk for Edith’s rummage sale. He slid an oak hutch aside and there it was; a hole in the dusty floorboards, the size of an apple, in the center of the shed’s floor.… Continue Reading