Fiction - Year V - Number 31 - December 2019

ENDANGEREDby Simon Lowe  A bright and perky morning in 1983. Bill Finton, a consultant ecologist, waits for the postman to deliver a bribe. Yesterday, Bill took a bribe to the hospital hoping his daughter would...

ZOMBIES, VAMPIRES, AND YE OLD WOMEN OF THE KNIGHTBy Phoenix DeSimone   On Mondays, Wilbur would skip feeding the cats and making dinner. He’d punch off at his job making Xerox copies five days a week,...

THE PITby Joel Howard Ben was shocked that his dad had bothered to come. Perhaps the man had been surprised  -  even elated  -  that his son had exhibited some spirit in breaking the rules...

THE FLAT ABOVEby Sue Brennan Belinda had always wanted to live above a shop and there was no real explaining why. Maybe it was the idea of people moving around underneath, the idea of two...

RUNAWAYby Maria Espinosa Hannah lay on the roof.  The rough pebbles and tar scratched her body.  She watched the people below: her mother and threepolicemen.  A branch from the maple tree waved in the wind...

THE LIFE COACHby Patrick Douglas Legay People were facing out from their front porches, talking low and drinking from tall cans or plastic wine stems. The lawnmowers and leaf blowers had been quiet for hours,...

EULOGY By Spencer Storey Johnson Pine leans on his gravestone, dressed as he always was when we were young: artfully torn denim jacket, dark curls swept back teasing the glint of a gold earring. His feet...

TREASURE MAP TO SUCCESS by John Califano MY FATHER WAS meticulous about his appearance and always left for work wearing a pressed suit and a starched white shirt, his tie knotted perfectly. He carried a leather...

MADE TO DECAYby Tom O'Brien Hugh sat on a bench in Cavendish Square Park, hearing a police siren wail along nearby Oxford St. The crumbling statue of the Duke of Cumberland that shaded him looked...

DO YOU DO HITS? by James Hanna I am a magnet for strangers. They approach me in airports, subways, and bars, and they tell me their most compromising secrets. I never solicit these revelations; in fact,...