POINT BRAKE by Tara Layne

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Alarms ending in seven were just one of the latest products of my sporadic self-diagnosed OCD. My phone began beeping at 5:37 am. The bottle of Trader Joe’s Two-Buck Chuck I’d downed the night...

LETTING GO OF “WHAT IF” – OUR PARENTING STORY Cynthia Damon

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Letting Go of “What If”: Our Parenting Story “What if” questions, especially for parents, can be terrifying. Children’s books can help. “What If…” When my wife and I were informed by the fertility clinic that she was...

AN INTERRUPTION IN TIME by Olga Katsovskiy

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An ambulance slowly drives past in silence. I am standing by the four-foot-tall Christmas tree by the window, looking past the snowflake decals taped on the cold glass. The ambulance comes with no sirens...

THE COUNTING OF LITTLE BIRD by Deena Goldstein

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The Counting of Little Bird, by Deena Goldstein (excerpt, from OK, Little Bird) After two months of observing the pandemic visitation restrictions, I learn I’m able to visit my father through the screen of his...

THE FOUR OF US LOST THE STREET by Hellen Albuquerque

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Nós quatro perdemos a rua Por Hellen Albuquerque Quando eu tinha 11 anos, me mudei de escola. Novo uniforme, agora azul escuro com listras amarelas laterais que me faziam parecer parte oficial dos Correios. Novos nomes...

SACRIFICE: A DOCTOR’S STORY by Seth Guterman

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I was a new doctor in 1997 when one of my patients suffered severe swelling in the throat after being given medicine in the emergency room at the hospital. I tried unsuccessfully to place...

THE MISBEGOTTEN TEAM by Paul Perilli

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This came back to me years later when my brother and I were moving my mother to a smaller apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts. I was cleaning out a drawer when I came across a batch...

XIFAKI, A SOUTH AFRICAN SOCCER GRANNY by Jean Duffy

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Xifaki, A South African Soccer Granny “I am eighty-six years old. I don’t know what my mates say when they look at me. Most of them do not even believe that I am that old....

CAUTIONARY TALES by Gershom Gerneth Mabaquiao

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How do you make people listen? You tell stories.             For children, these stories usually featured mythical creatures. For Filipino children, these mythical stories always had a touch of darkness. Abduction, drowning, attacks, soul-stealing. For...

THE UNIVERSE AS A FLUKE by Greg Seitz

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The Universe as a Fluke The laws of physics have always existed. They manifest as potential energy and interact randomly. They have no consciousness or purpose. They exist outside of space and time in a...