Fiction – Year VI – Number 44 – January 2021

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...

Bar Harbor, Maine by Luke Black A radiant heating element hummed over a plane of wet tile as the mothers feigned interest in their children's cannonballs. How many feet had padded across the spearmint-colored tile since...

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...

                                                                                    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...

The Heart of a Revolutionary Jacob McLaws Zhang Tianyu is being released from the hospital today. The Peking Union Medical College Hospital. I smoke as I wait for him outside. He won’t notice me. He’s never...

"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...

Uriel Fox and the Mystery of the Dying Children Uriel Fox rambled through the mountain forests and meadows for much of the year, and frequently he’d meet a fellow sojourner along the way. These encounters...

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...