Slingshot Factory Andrew Zornoza __________ ASPX-PIM begins to warm up! ASPX-PIM is the name of our whirring plastic injection machine. Deep inside its belly, manifold heaters let electrical current puddle into heat with measured control. It’s very important for everything ASPX-PIM does to be measured. Excess heat, excess plastic, excess…
Read MoreAs Per Usual Susan Isla Tepper __________ In the bodega I ordered four cups of black coffee. After I paid, the register girl put the four cups into a small cardboard tray with cup grooves. I carried it over to the little counter with the sugar and non-sweetener packets and the thumbnail…
Read MoreDelSanto’s Beach Joe Kapitan __________ Remy, the foreman in Weighing/Sorting, says I should never have been hired in the first place (Human Resources needs to start giving attitude tests, not aptitude tests, he says). Feldman has taken to sitting at another lunch table, the same Feldman who used to ask…
Read MoreThe Company Man James Gianetti __________ My father was the kind of person who tried finding the symbolism in everything. One time a small pheasant soared right into our kitchen window at breakfast time. My brother and I counted the feathers as they floated on the milk in our cereal…
Read MoreUndercover Boss Carly Diaz __________ I’ve been secretly hoping the new IT guy is our Undercover Boss. Brian is about 5 ’10, chubby, and has a very sad-looking mustache, like I bet if he stood still for long enough I could count all the hairs. He wears black plastic glasses,…
Read MoreWorkplace: Wounds and Woes ’24 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Karris Rae Assistant Editors: Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Esther Courville, “Life Sentence,” photograph Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson Letter from the Guest Editor by Karris Rae Prose “Undercover Boss” by Carly Diaz “The Company Man” by…
Read MoreFour Walls Michael Martone __________ Mont-Saint-Michel France The island was fortified in 1256, resisting the sieges of the Hundred Years War. During the German occupation of France, the island was a major tourist destination for the Germans, a half million visited the island over the four years. A single American…
Read MoreImagine: Summer II Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Abbie Skinner Assistant Editors: Karris Rae, Aiman Tariq, Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Editorial Assistants: Mia Bonds, Alexandria Knight Sheila Squillante, Sun Shower, Acrylic ink and pen. __________ Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson A Goodbye Letter from the Managing…
Read MoreLast Rites Neil Connelly __________ Breathing In the movies when somebody dies, they always exhale, one long final sigh. But at my mother’s end, she just stopped. She inhaled and her chest rose up then froze. Still. For days, she had struggled to breath, wide-eyed and raspy, something wet and…
Read MoreReport: Skinny Monkeys Live Longer Steve Almond __________ All those sweet bubbes boiling knaidlach, those nonnas palming gnocchi andplump babushkas ladling borscht, bonneting the afternoons in schmaltz andsteam—all of them are murderers. Out in California, they believe you can live forever on the right diet:grapefruit, sunflower seeds, Sweet ‘N Low.…
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