by Russ Hall Forty-seven pogo sticks Showed up by error at the nursing home. Retired duffs and greying dames Cast off their walkers; one Rose up from a steel wheelchair. “Oh, brittle bones, we do not care.” They mounted and began to hop, Up and...
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by Shawne Steiger Photo by Lucio Abatemarco Take a selfie at your sister’s wedding. Pose in your pale green bridesmaid dress, shoes long ago dumped under the table. Snap. In the photo your cheeks are alcohol flushed and your teeth are huge, the...
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by Marie Flanigan T settled on a roof across from the arcade. He unzipped his gear bag and began assembling his rifle. In less than a minute, the gun was mounted on a tripod and T lay prone behind it, sighting two pigeons wandering across the...
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by Densie Webb She couldn’t point to a day marked in red on the calendar when everything had fallen apart. It had been a methodical, exquisitely painful dissection. In the beginning, she was hopelessly—no—insanely in love with him. There he was...
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by Nicholas Conley Recreating dead people is a complex process. The little details often get skewed. Mason’s software could usually whip up living dead folks with the skill and flair of an experienced barista, but not this time. It was 2 AM...
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“Exiled” (A Bonus Story from Versions of Her) by Andrea Lochen Melanie was thirteen and had a brand-new blue-plaid bikini—the top was padded, her sister, Kelsey, liked to point out. When Melanie wasn’t listening to her Discman and paging...
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Pandemic by Claire Matturro The last man on stage Struts and frets as he exits. From a tree, a wren Sings “Ode to Joy” as a rose Opens to the sun.
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by Jessica Dall Lisbon: 1755 In the quick break before the next round of bodies arrived, John rubbed his shoulder. He had worked with worse injuries, but somehow this one was paining him worse than anything in his past. The next load was...
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by Deborah L. King Robert Bryant stopped in his tracks as white fog suddenly clouded his view. “Do you wish to continue walking?” the gender-neutral voice at his ear asked. Robert touched the tiny button on the left side of the frame...
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By Brian S. Leon Chapter i Tyre, Phoenicia, 1232 BC As the sun began to set on a pleasant summer’s evening, the sailors made the squat hippoi ship–named for its horse-head masthead–secure at its moorings within the Port of...
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by Erica Lucke Dean I stepped through the door and froze. Over the past several years, I’d spent countless hours in this place—every Tuesday night, pre-pandemic, to be precise—but suddenly, I was unsure of where I was. Did they redecorate?...
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by Sheri Langer “It’s a boy! Ten pounds, six ounces.” A brief pause before the cry that would punctuate the beginning of their life as a family. Ah, there it was. Strong, insistent, and seemingly incessant. Relief. Applause. Tears. The whole clan...
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