By Sue Katz No one could explain why she kept falling down their flight of stairs. Her mother and father couldn’t remember when it started, but Lynne would never forget that night when her sister Brenda was five and she herself was four. While their father was saying good night—as he did every night—Brenda squirmed [...]
By Mileva Anastasiadou She’s not that young, already in her mid-twenties, when the double lines appear on the test. She is careful enough most of the time, yet that’s how it goes; life happens and spoils all plans. At first, she’ll panic. That doesn’t mean much, her boyfriend will say; everybody panics at the prospect [...]
By Robert Walton “Mamichu, it’s cold!” I looked at Ivar. I looked at his knobby lump of a head, at his lips lying beneath his broken nose like twin dead slugs, at his eyes glistening beneath his granite ledge of a brow, eyes so small I never knew their color. There was no pleasure in [...]
By DS Levy A young man travels out of state where it’s possible to buy a gun, no questions asked. He buys an AK-47. The transaction is easier than getting the driver’s license that allows him to navigate across the desert highway. If you want his story, read his manifesto on Instagram. This story is [...]
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By Ron L. Dowell You're on Compton City Hall’s council chambers steps, a fist-sized Black Lives Matter button pinned conspicuously on your t-shirt, your belly distending and nearly blocking out Congresswoman Imelda Herrera and obscenely stretching Elizabeth Eckford's 1957 photo that’s on your tee. Elizabeth’s lovely brown face is downcast, looking cautiously through dark sunglasses, [...]
By Christopher Woods The house stands at the end of the road, near a river. He stands in the night street appraising the house, the ghost glow, the promise, a hopeful omen. He gathers his bags with the tools of his trade and begins to climb the stairs when he hears the cry from inside. [...]
By Jon Wesick The smell of reused, vegetable oil made Uncle Sam’s mouth water as he examined the backlit menu above the brushed-steel counter. When the cashier in the multicolored baseball cap motioned, Uncle Sam stepped forward. “I’ll have a cheeseburger, fries, and root beer.” “That’ll be $6.25.” The harsh overhead lights exposed the acne [...]
A dystopian cumulative tale by Robbie Gamble This is the wall that Trump built. This is the base that supported the wall that Trump built. This is the anger that stirred up the base that supported the wall that Trump built. These are the migrants, the “rapists and thugs,” such a shadowy danger disturbing the [...]
By Marleen S. Barr Baby cages were the last straw for Professor Sondra Lear, a feminist science fiction scholar par excellence. She had tears in her eyes whenever she thought about children wrenched from their parents’ arms. Desiring to drown out her sorrows in a morning cup of coffee, she boiled water and placed a [...]
By David Gershan “The problem started when anger itself became criminalized,” he explained behind surgical goggles. “The original purpose of the neural implants was to stymie physical aggression. The focus was on prevention—punishment and rehabilitation became less, well, fashionable.” He turned his head and pointed to the hairless, jagged scar just above his occipital bun. [...]
By Dein Sofley It’s not that there’s anything wrong with you. It’s just that, well, you know ... it’s normal to have sexual feelings. Our bodies were made to procreate. Reproduce. Have babies. When you’re married. It’s just that a man and a woman, they fit together, by design. See? A woman provides the egg and [...]
By Chinyere Onyekwere "They're here, Papa!" cried seven-year-old Kene Biko, careening into his father's outstretched arms. They felt each other's thundering heartbeats—had that kind of connection. The sight of men cavorting on his property like they owned the place jolted Julius Biko, sent fear knifing through his innards. The dreaded land infringement conundrum was suddenly [...]
By Amirah Al Wassif Everyone has heard of Costa’s miracles in our grey village: the boy who had a wooden toy and a cheerful wren bird. His giant miracles were in his spoken wooden toy, which could create a lot of jokes in a loud tone. His second miracle was in his talented wren: a [...]
By John Sheirer After a year of making hundreds of calls each day, wearing out another pair of shoes every few weeks, and knocking on more doors than he thought could exist in the whole country, David planned to take his family for a well-earned weekend in the country on the first Saturday of November. [...]
