Fiction – Year VI – Number 44 – January 2021

                                                                  The Blighted Madonna           There was a lady once, an extremely attractive lady, who appeared as to hold the beauty of the holy cherubs in her warm pleasant face and upon her delicate fragile...

The Princess in the Tower             The voices layered over each other--women’s voices--but she couldn’t make out the words. Valentine? Mannequin? She pulled out her hairpin, set down her coronet, loosed her hair. It fell...

The Locusts Have Eaten Everything “He didn’t do it.” Mom takes a deep breath. She exhales. “I don’t care what the other student said—my son would never hurt anyone.” I listen. I maintain meaningful eye contact....

In the Negev Desert by Arielle Prose On the floor of a carpeted tent among Bedouin Arabs, I was sitting on cushions, nervous to be the only woman present among admiring men including the tribal sheik, whom...

Hunter By Jade Gabriel My once golden jalopy sputtered into silence as I pulled into the parking spot. I glanced briefly at my phone while I wiped away my morning tears. I was ahead of schedule....

Summer’s Silence It was June and Auntie Mabel and Uncle Jim had come up from Alabama to visit for two weeks. With them came George, the youngest cousin, my favorite person. He was easy to...

Beneath the Gray Brioni Suit                Beneath the gray Brioni suit, underneath the Salvatore Ferragamo five-fold Italian silk tie and the tailored John Varvatos shirt, on the day the missile would strike the Santa...

Sick Headache by Thomas Elson Look closely. You are where it began - at a time before polio shots, seat belts, and television. A time when visitors entered houses through unlocked kitchen doors. And, after all these...

BURNT UMBER, BURNT SIENNA by David Obuchowski You tell yourself to not be superstitious. You take a deep breath and squeeze your eyes shut and you assure yourself that omens and jinxes aren’t real. But then...

THE GIRL BY THE LAKE  I worked graveyard shifts at the plywood mill and I hated it, but it paid double a server wage.  The forklift driver I worked with, Elton Frank, said “You’re a...