Fiction - Year V - Number 33 - February 2020

THE OLD FRONT PORCH by Ruth Deming  He was a man who never cussed in front of women. Just inside his own head. The black head of retired Major Robert O. Brown. Thanksgiving was on its...

SMELL OF LEATHERby Vivek Nath Mishra  After a long day, Subba walked down a narrow alley passing several sleeping, ruminating cows in the middle of the street, perturbing the sleep of stray dogs curled up...

DID I STUTTER?By Alan Berger  No one ever in any of Joe’s classrooms starting from kindergarten ever thought that he would ever be P.H.D. material. More like P.H.Duh material.So thought the students, the teachers. And Joe...

WE ARE WAITINGby Chrissie Rohrman I’m on break when I get the call from Gram. I listen and nod along, pretending my heart isn’t seizing in my chest. “Keep me posted,” I tell her, and...

ALTER IAGOby Marcia Eppich-Harris  “The soul is as important as the sinews,” the orientation speaker had said on my first day of medical school. “Here at St. Hearthguard University, we believe that the best doctors...

AN INSTANT OF EVERYTHINGby John Riebow  The night air was crisp as he emerged from the heat of the crowded club.  It was just after midnight and, thanks to a three quarter moon and a...

FOR YOU, BLUEby Anna Schaeffer  “Eighty-two.”Lina Vaduva woke up with the number thrumming in her head like a dial tone. The clock on Lina’s phone read 3:45, but silence was rare in Lewiston, even in...

JIMINEYby Lisa Lebduska  On a blistering July morning in 1979, Connie and Maria entered the smooth, moneyed chill of The Plaza Hotel, trailing after Connie's father Tom, who crossed its gleaming marble with the long,...

THE SULLEN ROADby Susie Gharib  I fell in love with his shadow which wavered every time he passed by my window, a profile with no features, but whose footsteps echoed in a rhythmic fashion that...

THE ALLEYWAY FIGHTby Taylor G Mauck  Bio: David gets dragged into a fight with guys who want revenge over something that happened in high school, and gets injured. David’s boyfriend, Jacob, and his best friend,...