I wake up on the back of an alligator crawling slowly down Main Street. Trumpets blare. Knights with shields of flame and blood-encrusted swords descend on the train depot at the end of the drag. They’re on the march, hunting the last big game. General Slaughter wants a new head on his wall. *** General … Continue reading A Long, Long Dog, Having Chased its Orbited Tail by Nolan Liebert
It’s the kind of night that beckons you home. A night for old pyjamas, the stink of burning dust from the storage heater, and the same four channels—but your stop is getting closer and you haven’t pressed the bell. The two old ladies sitting together in the disabled seats always get the number thirteen on … Continue reading Four Stops by G.V. Anderson
The paintings never sold, so Cora hung them on the walls. Of course, she understood why they frightened people; peripherally, they seemed to move. If you glanced at them out of the corner of your eye, you might swear you saw the waters shimmer, a set of eyes blink, or the wave of a mermaid’s … Continue reading The Painted Sea by Lucy Ledger
My sister is a chameleon, always ready to become whoever is needed to seal the fissures in our lives. She put on Houdini’s skin first, one snowed-in February morning. My mother and I watched her slither out of a pair of bike chains as a blizzard roared through our zip code. Each time she escaped she’d … Continue reading The Lost and Found of What We Need by Evan Mallon
Ted isn’t coming to bed anymore. Susan, who describes herself as “his wife” only with the addition of “long-suffering”, will instead come down to him and ask him what the hell he is doing in the name of God. She will come down the stairs (the old wooden boards and her old wooden knees creaking … Continue reading Dreamwashed by TL Krawec
She was fifteen when her parents realized she was a kite. First, they tethered her to the bedpost to stop her from flying out the window. She kept bumping her head against the ceiling, though, so they tried other places next: the kitchen table, to keep an eye on her, but the cat wouldn’t leave … Continue reading The Kite Girl by Natalia Theodoridou
June tugs her jeans lower on her hips, feeling giddy in the half-dark. Such a breathless night, the wind stirring the trees like a great cauldron of apples! She’d like to pull off her T-shirt, let the moonlight and foliage tattoo her breasts in shifting shadow, but she can’t quite shake loose thirty-two years of … Continue reading Junebug by Kellelynne Riley
Omar walked in his front door, locked it, and froze. The house was silent and he could see all the way into the living room, where the time engine sat covered in a lace white tablecloth. All the curtains in the house were drawn, and the last bit of afternoon light was just enough to … Continue reading One Last Time by Lorena Torres Loaiza
Woman’s Knife Ruby had called in all her favors for the obsidian. A very unfeminine request, some remarked. She hadn’t collected the sharp edged slab of obsidian. Her brother’s friend, obsessed with conquering mountains, left it at her door. It all boiled down to glass. A frozen pool of translucent black that cut her fingers … Continue reading Woman’s Knife * Dead Skin * Stealing Canoes by Sloan Thomas
Upsherin (Yiddish, lit. “shear off”) is a haircutting ceremony observed by a wide cross-section of Jews and is particularly popular in Haredi Jewish communities. It is typically held when a boy turns three years old. (Wikipedia) Payos are the (often curled) sidelocks worn by some Orthodox men. Tzitzis are the fringes that hang from a … Continue reading The Shearing of Yossi Mandelbaum by Anna Lea Jancewicz