Fiction - Year V - Number 36 - May 2020

CEDARby Mike Dillon  His eyes moved from the old, white wooden ceiling to the young hospice nurse with her back to him.“How long does it take to die?”She stopped what she was doing, hesitated a...

GRETABy Susanne Roff I met Greta in prison. She’d got five years and was two thirds of her way through them. We met on the industrial cleaning course of all things – that was about...

HORSEBACKby Eric D. Goodman Dustin prepared the horses for another day of riding. The sun had barely risen, but he’d already put in a few hours. Earlier, he’d made breakfast—eaten three eggs, bacon, toast, and...

THE PRICE OF KINDNESSby Robert Penick       I was born in Mississippi, which is a big Strike One right off the bat, but I was also born poor, to people who didn’t need to be poor,...

THINK LIKE A THIEF                            By Jim Zinaman    Through the glass walls of his office on the Equities Institutional Sales and Trading floor, Brass Brothers Partner Lloyd Fuchsberg glanced at his soldiers battling on his newly expanded...

LINEMAN’S HUT NO. 13by Magdalena Blazevic   The shadow is alive and Sofija knows she cannot run from it. The room's walls cannot soak it in, nor can the dark swallow it up. She pulls the...

GREEN EYESby Miles Hall  Every time he leaves the house, Nathan feels a pair of judgmental eyes damning him for his sins. On Tuesday, when Nathan went outside to check the mailbox, he saw them....

THE BRITby Alan Swyer  At first Adam Lerner didn't know whether to be stunned, dazzled, or simply jealous about Colin Nichols' rapid rise in Hollywood society.Both having arrived on the West Coast thanks to a...

WINSOME GOES TO TEACHER’S COLLEGE / from The Guarded Virginby Yvonne Blackwood  I’m standing on the verandah looking across the meadow, off into the coming dawn. The night sounds remain audible—crickets bleating, frogs croaking, a dog...

FROSTBITTEN PIEROGIby Jennifer Ostromecki  Inside our house I shiver while my breath fogs the window; I draw a cake with seven candles then wipe the pane before Mama notices. Babcia bangs and clangs pans in...