SHE DESERVED TO DIE by Nicola Vallera
Ms. Calidor, 87 years old, was a lovely person. Apart from an innate hate for bugs—that she saw as plant enemies—she badmouthed nobody, and she wouldn’t say no if you needed help. Some people...
PARK PEOPLE by Thomas Belton
“You can neither lie to a neighborhood park, nor reason with it.
Jane Jacobs
Most people may use the city parks to wander through for an hour or more, to read a book or walk the...
SHE WHO HIDES by Tania Gissela
She Who Hides
Every Saturday at 1 A.M., I wake up and drive in the moonlit avenues.
It all started with a dream. Behind her was a white car—my white car. She was standing beneath the...
THE BIG GULP by Fernanda Franco
I stood in front of a poster board while I waited outside. A cherry slushy in a clear cup with the words Big Gulp printed in bubble font staring back at me. I tilted...
COMFORTING ABODE by Dell R. Lipscomb
Hinges squealed like the wail of a distressed sprite as the bathroom stall door swung open, its outer edge nearly grazing a young woman standing outside the stall. The woman, dressed in gray slacks...
THE SMARTIE by R. H. Nicholson
Professor Elias McCracken bound through the door of his mint green Victorian home, his arms full of books, his briefcase bursting with ungraded essays, his trench coat flapping, tamping his shoes on the...
HOW DID I BECOME THE BEGGAR by Stephanie Daich
HOW DID I BECOME THE BEGGAR
“Lady, lady, stop ignoring me.” The loud voice from the wheelchair reverberates against the walls, overriding the chatter of people walking the mall.
“If I don’t look at him, I...
ART PROJECT by John Tavares
On a lark, Taglia bought a lottery ticket, after joking with his favorite convenience store clerk over the size of the jackpot, twenty-four million dollars. Meanwhile, he bought his nightly takeout coffee and a...
DYE by Cassandra Booth
Margaret had not slept for three nights. That familiar ache behind the eyes gnawed away at her the same way a beetle gnaws a leaf. This would be the fourth sleepless night, what with...
TRAPPED AND IMAGING (?) A TALKING SEA TURTLE by Janet Mason
At first, I pretend that I’m not trapped. How could I be? Afterall, I named myself Dick Moby—after that thick book I found floating in the sea which I promptly absorbed into my massive...