The World Was Sad on a Tuesday
By Amelia Díaz Ettinger Inspired by Gabriel García Marquez, Un Señor Muy Viejo Con Alas Enormes Maybe it was true, the land had turned angry against the rabbits that were eating all the carrots on the planet. Maybe that was why, on the least important day of the week, on a long line of unimportant…
Rehab
By David Lanvert You still walk faster than I do. But you run faster. I know, it’s always been that way. You should take it easy. Don’t worry, I’ll slow down if I get winded. I mean you don’t have to push yourself. I’m okay. We used to do more than this. I know. All…
Pigeon Love
By Jinjia Grace Hu Every morning when I open my door, a pigeon waits on my doorstep. It might have been mundane—New York has more pigeons than straight men, according to my friend—if it hadn’t been the same pigeon every day, following me around with the obedience of a Victorian butler. The emerald plumes on…
The Way Guys Are
By David Larsen Lucy McBride grimaced as she studied the picture on her bedroom wall. The sweeping landscape of the plains of western Nebraska, a gift from her aunt and uncle in Grand Island, had been swapped out without her knowledge, replaced with a pen and ink sketch of Tom’s former girlfriend, Susan, naked as…
Unicorn Summer
A Memoir by Johanna Elattar The television in our living room showed a unicorn that summer—a pearlescent creature with a single, spiraling horn—destined for Madison Square Garden. I was eleven, and unlike the adults around me, I still believed in the possibility of a miracle. I didn’t know about surgical grafts or the grim theater…
The Bottle Trees
after A House with Bottle Trees, Simpson County, photography by Eudora Welty (USA) 1941 It was their third night in the new house, and Walter still couldn’t sleep. His wife was restless, too, tossing and turning and constantly sitting up to fiddle with the fan. Born and raised in California, the heat was not new…
Three Caves Monster
By M.D. Smith IV Near the ragged edge of town, where streetlights thin out and the woods swallow the last sighs of civilization, a dirt road claws its way up the backside of a mountain and simply stops. It ends at a wound in the earth—a limestone cave mined in the 1920s, abandoned when the…
The Marriage Encounter
`By David Henson Hurrying down a rush-choked sidewalk, the marriage is shocked by a smooth-skinned, dark-haired version of itself crossing the street. The marriage calls out, but the urban din gulps its voice. As the marriage jaywalks closer, a bike messenger runs it down. Cartoon stars orbiting its head, the marriage struggles to its feet…
Perry Is So Special
By Jeff Harvey Perry stole an issue of People Magazine, the one with Tony Orlando on the cover, and placed it in an old fruitcake tin, hidden under his bed along with his diary, pictures of Joe Namath cut from a magazine, and a copy of Fear of Flying. When he returned from summer band…
Slashes of Moonlight
By Mark Rosenblum The stranger exhaled his last drag and rose from the sagging bed. He pulled on jeans, dragged a sun-bleached polo over a pale chest and left the motel room. She was alone now. The only sound at 3 a.m. was the hum of the ice machine in the hallway. The…
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