Fiction – Year V – Number 40 – September 2020

Lone Star Dan Carpenter "You're here with the conference?" the clerk asked as he paid for his inspirational paperback and his Dentyne. "Al-Anon," he replied, trying to meet her lowered blue-green eyes and instinctively bumping up his...

                              Conjured                                                             Jamie shivered, and pulled the covers closer around himself. He escaped into his book and illuminated every word with a flashlight. The sounds in the rest of the house...

The Beginning of an End After returning the pamphlet to where it had lain, Johan shouldered on his jacket, slumped down onto the porch and pulled on his leather shoes – tying the final knot,...

BAD COFFEE By: Alicia Young             Kira twirled her index finger repeatedly around the metal utensil submerged in her caramel latte. She despised the waiting game as much as she despised the beverage, but she remained...

DOJOJI  By David Massey             I am pacing, like a wild animal in a cage, waiting for Mr. Mason.  He will be carrying a gun, and I expect to die and my whole family, too.  And...

"LOYALTY" "I don't know what in hell you expect from me," Ross Tanner growled as Ackerman entered his Las Vegas office. "Fifteen minutes of your time, plus a few answers." "C'mon, we both know most of these...

TEX MOSTLY        It was August, and it was hot. Mom moved my older brother Hank and me from a Lowell triple-decker apartment to our father’s farm hidden deep in the New England woods. With...

FIREBREAK John Tavares When Spirit called the reception desk for the results of blood tests, Dr. Windier insisted on a follow-up appointment at the clinic. The locum doctor said she couldn’t reveal the results of her...

The Kiss Kayla wanted to kiss a man at 12:45 a.m. under the midnight sun during the finale of the fireworks display in Eagle River, Alaska. That was her goal. “It would be sooooooo romantic,” she...