Fiction - Year V - Number 39 - August 2020

Intimate “I wanted to intimate something and not to be intimate,” I explained with a bitter grin. He always boasted about his excellent command of English but that sex-charged adjective that resembled a verb he had...

In Rotation Aria caught the city bus as the sky donned a pinkish glow before the day’s final gasp. Her daughter Millie sat on her lap, gripping her wrinkled hospital scrubs — the ones with...

The Casual Thinker Many consider Samantha to be my best girlfriend since we’ve known each other for at least five years and, most weekends in Los Angeles, we are inseparable.  She is the prettiest girl...

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...

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...

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...

It was chaos in the close quarter lodgings. No matter where Mirka went people threatened one another and fought over scraps of food. Father had told him that it was where the hopeless gathered....

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...

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...

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...