The Second Law of Thermodynamics Shweta Ravi __________ Like the man in the video game, you wonder if you’re being busy, intelligent or foolish. OnSundays, you rinse Mahira’s white school sneakers in vinegar and sunlight before inclining them on the porch like poodles waiting to be tethered. On Mondays you…
Read MoreLinda McMullen __________ Banner Days Prom night, aged 17: the surreptitious banner, half-crouching behind a fake fig tree, read “Enchanted Garden”. I was The Lady in Red. You blushed, and asked me to dance – and I cocked my head to the side, scrambling to recollect. Were you the scullion…
Read MoreMy Med School OSCE Christine Benton Criswell __________ I knew I was in for it when Allen came out of the exam room. He looked pained. “It was awful,” he said. “All I can say is … good luck.” We were participating in our medical school OSCE—the Objective Structured ClinicalExam.…
Read MoreHow Your World Ends A Fibonacci series flash Keith Powell __________ baDUM. baDUM. Heart attack? You lurch outside. The bar’s back alley beckons. You worry you might die in secret here. People will find your pickled corpse between garbage cans and crushed cigarette butts. People will tut-tut that that’s the…
Read MoreWord Problems (You Do the Math) Christina Tudor __________ 1. If you walk down Fletcher Avenue instead of Adams Lane every time you walk home because, although it’s .3 miles longer, Fletcher Avenue has better lighting, more witnesses, how many extra miles do you walk in a year, in a…
Read MoreUniversal Language, July ’25 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing/Guest Editor: Karris Rae Associate Editor: Taryn White Assistant Editors: Robbie Hess, Leah Joseph, Jade Turner, Meilyn Woods Nam Hoang Tran, “//||\\||//||\\||//,” photography. Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson Letter from the Guest Editor by Karris Rae Fiction “How Your…
Read MoreEmma Goldman-Sherman __________ A Nest of Hornets That summer, I told her, “I’m a boy.” My mother laughed and said, “The hell you are.” After dinner, I chased fireflies. I decided their lights meant green for boys, red for girls even if it wasn’t science. I trapped the red ones…
Read MoreThalassophilia Selene Sezer __________ I remember the day you asked me if I already knew how I’d die. I assumed you were simply starting a conversation and would follow up a second later with your own answer. But no. You, with your green shimmering eyes, fixed on me. I was…
Read MoreThe Fireworks Swetha Amit __________ After I signed the divorce papers last month, I sat on my balcony in my East Bay apartment overlooking Lake Merritt. The cool July air made me pull my blanket tighter around my shoulders. Near the lake, families and couples gathered. Laughter floated in the…
Read MoreEveryone at the Sand Sculpting Contest, Imperial Beach, California, 1985 Lynn Mundell __________Jennifer says none of us have any imagination or experience, so we should make a sand Pop-Tart, which will require zero skill. We all stand around in different colored bikinis like a box of crayons melting in the…
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