Fiction – Year VI – Number 44 – January 2021

Where I’m From, They Still Celebrate VJ Day By: Angelo J. Sylvester When Henry found it that morning, he realized he never knew his grandfather. He dug it out of the attic from a dust-covered pile...

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...

"Morning, I'm calling about the room you've got advertised." "Sorry, it's already taken." "Okay, thank you." I drew a line through the phone number on my piece of paper. Another one gone. Surely, I wouldn't end...

Tony’s Place Keep a clear a head, remember who you are and why they are. I can't get sucked in again, I just can't! An intense thrumming bounced around Ray’s cranium, he thought maybe the...

Petunias             “So how’s it going at the not-home-alone house?” Darci asks Linda. They’re arranging some new dahlias on a two-tiered round table just outside the entrance to Bernie’s Hometown Hardware. Every spring Bernie expands...

                                                                                    Sleep Well, Shadow                                                                   By Aliyah Smith Every day, the same routine. Alarm pierces through my skull. Wake up in a cold sweat. Stand up from the mattress on the floor. Eat breakfast. Take a...

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...

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...

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...