Fiction - Year V - Number 39 - August 2020

Bar the Door By Carolyn R. Russell I received the emailed query just before my nightly rounds: lock up the front door, turn off the house lights, check the thermostat, bar the rear slider door...

Science Project Journal Results of a Giant Sequoia Gene Spliced to a Lima Bean Plant Introduction Mr. Johannsen, our science teacher, told us if we wanted to earn an A+ this year we needed an...

Pleasantness by Pete Able I took my wife out on the town. It was the same old town but a new restaurant we hadn’t been to before. An experience that I hoped would slightly expand our...

Playing Frog Justin wanted to get up from the floor board, but the game wasn’t over. He was still the turtle, and until Maggie called “frog” he had to stay there or he wouldn’t get...

DEEP WATER Yellow flowered gorse flecks the hill as I climb up to Lyme Cage. As I reach the summit, the wind fair rips my hair from its roots. It’s hard to breathe when you’re...

Still Love By Jennifer A Swallow We were in the kitchen when it happened. Mitchell was sautéing some shrimp to put on a salad while I was looking through the wine fridge for the perfect bottle...

Cerebral and Contemptuous By Mike Hickman Cerebral sidled up to Contemptuous, eyed up his suit and his batwing glasses and then lifted his sherry. ‘Chin-chin, old chap,’ he said. Contemptuous raised a shaggy eyebrow. ‘And you are?’ ‘Just...

Stone Skin By Jihoon Park Kishimura, the town’s only barber, opened the window of his shop. The smell of burnt bodies and rice drafted in, along with the humid morning breeze. The last wisps of smoke...

A Happier Ending by Richard Thieme "I hate 'Fargo!'" Marcella said. "Don't tell me you like that goddamn movie." I looked at her angry face and said, "Well, I didn't say--" "You said you thought it...

Ella by T. M. Boughnou “What?” the man heard the mother demand sharply and emphatically of her young daughter. “Tell me—where did you get that from? Who told you that?” She...