Fiction - Year V - Number 36 - May 2020

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....

JASPER & RUBYby Zach Murphy  “These guys have been around longer than us!” Jasper says to Ruby as they admire the Galapagos tortoises at the Como Zoo. “I bet they’re wiser than us too!” says Ruby. Jasper...

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...

OBSCURAby Ian Swalwell  It was too early for the cacophony, too early for the anxiety, too early for the shame, but it was there anyway.  It wasn’t late enough to grab someone by the shirt...

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...

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...

BEAUTIFUL IN THE WATERby Brad Shurmantine  Packed with the fat and arrogance that would kill him three years later, Julius Schott lumbered back to his portable classroom after the secret lunch meeting he had organized...

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...

FRACTURE by Aubrie Artiano It’s Saturday.When you draw back the curtain, morning light, grey and harsh as soot, pours in. Condensation coats your window. Outside, murky puddles dot the road, flooding entire patches of narrow sidewalk....

MESSINESSby Jahnavi Misra   “Does this spark joy?” Nita kept asking herself.She went around the room, tripping on random items, picking up one thing after another – a figurine, a coaster, a vinyl – and repeating...