Fiction - Year IV - Number 24 - May 2019

COUSIN "ITT"by Bruce Kamei “Can I have a Rover here at sixty-nine and seventy?” an immigration inspector asked over the radio.            “What’s the problem?” asked INS Acting Supervisory Immigration Inspector Takeshi Tsukemoto.  Sixty-nine and seventy...

HUNG JURYby Alan Berger The depressing envelope in Penny Bankey’s mailbox was surrounded by other depressing envelopes that went by the name of Bill now due.But this envelope out depressed them all as it was...

DRESSING THE PARTby Deirdre Fagan  The dress was boxed in 1990.  The box still had the dry cleaner's receipt attached to its slightly yellowed side.  Behind the cellophane window, Eva could just glimpse the beaded...

THE NIGHT WE METby Aimee Hardy   I opened my eyes, and it was snowing.I was all alone.I lay there wrapped up in a blanket, looking out at the snow. The TV was playing softly...

THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHERby Alethea Tyler   One, two, three, four taps against the side of her thigh. To ground her. To calm her. Four was the perfect number. Divisible by two. The age of untouched...

VALIDATIONby Ivanka Fear       I lost my identity today. Seriously, I woke up this morning and couldn’t for the life of me remember who I am. Maybe I’m still dreaming, I thought. I sat up in bed,...

MOVIE LIFEby Ken O'Steen   I remembered the sun and the warmth and the tall palms. I thought about them during the New Hampshire winters, though I remembered few details from those days in Los...

CORAby Olivia Du Pont  “The first thing I remember was that everyone was yelling around me, my mother was crying, and the last thing I remember was seeing was a woman standing at the end...

THE LAST DAY OF GUSTAVO BUSTAMANTEby Conor O'Brian Barnes A noble life is of no account, Gustavo Bustamante thought to himself. Death is a vulture feeding on jackals and lions the same. He lay dying on the...

NOTHING FOR YOU HEREby Mitchell Waldman   I've got bad news: there is nothing for you here. Nothing.Do you want to go through life in a dream state?You are nothing but a cog in their...