Fiction - Year IV - Number 24 - May 2019

PIT STOP EXISTENCEby Margery Bayne   “The pay is shit, but money’s money.”It was the first thing Steve said to Nathan after staring him down when he first stepped into his kitchen. Steve was in...

CORAby Olivia Du Pont  “The first thing I remember was that everyone was yelling around me, my mother was crying, and the last thing I remember was seeing was a woman standing at the end...

FIRST SPRING SEASONby Daniel Picker   My father disappeared in the dark that late winter when the nights still ran long into the mornings and the day still ran short with darkness falling before dinner. ...

A QUIET MANby A. Elizabeth Herting   They came from every corner of the land, making the long, sad pilgrimage to the place in the middle he called home. To say the man would be...

THE LAST DAY OF GUSTAVO BUSTAMANTEby Conor O'Brian Barnes A noble life is of no account, Gustavo Bustamante thought to himself. Death is a vulture feeding on jackals and lions the same. He lay dying on the...

DRESSING THE PARTby Deirdre Fagan  The dress was boxed in 1990.  The box still had the dry cleaner's receipt attached to its slightly yellowed side.  Behind the cellophane window, Eva could just glimpse the beaded...

HUNG JURYby Alan Berger The depressing envelope in Penny Bankey’s mailbox was surrounded by other depressing envelopes that went by the name of Bill now due.But this envelope out depressed them all as it was...

SOMETHING TO LEAVE BEHINDby Christian R. Fennell It was the surname that got me thinking: I wonder if he’s related to Tommy Mountjoy, a guy I went to school with. When I asked if he’d...

HOMEby Sarah Moore   “Ma’am, I just need you to sign here,” said the FedEx guy. A notepad poked out from beneath the carcass of the wolf-dog-creature-thing in his arms.Angela stared down at the body,...

THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHERby Alethea Tyler   One, two, three, four taps against the side of her thigh. To ground her. To calm her. Four was the perfect number. Divisible by two. The age of untouched...