Imagine: 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.…
Read MoreBald Eagle Taxes Tim Bass __________ The new guy showed up in a coat of black feathers and a giant hat with a long, fuzzy eagle’s beak sticking out of it. He wore yellow pants. “Weird,” Eric said. “Looks like something on Sesame Street,” Stevie P. said. Eric and Stevie…
Read MoreThe Specter in the Tadpole Room Brigid Cawley __________ The kids playing with blocks this morning built a fire station, a castle, and a temple for Belphegor. Miriam and I look at each other knowingly when Danny explains his temple to us. We could have told you two days ago…
Read MoreSundown[ing] Jillee Sexton __________ For the past five years, I’ve woken up at exactly 6 p.m. and consumed two pints of blood from the industrial fridge that sits in the equally industrial kitchen of the house that’s supposed to be mine. The blood is colder than ice every time it…
Read MoreCrestview Way, October 1985 Victoria Lancelotta __________ It’s Saturday night almost Sunday morning when Jimmy and Abby do it. They’re at Ryan from AP European History’s house, the front door open and the back patio slicked with spilled beer, an October wind spinning wood smoke and brittle leaves. The party’s…
Read MoreVallie Lynn Watson Vallie Lynn Watson is an Assistant Professor of English/fiction writing in the MFA program at McNeese State University. Her novel, A River So Long, was published by Luminis Books, and recent short stories and essays appear in literary journals such as Hobart, Bending Genres, and PANK. Watson earned her doctorate a thousand…
Read MoreOne-Sentence Stories: Summer I, 2024 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Abbie Skinner Guest Editor: Taylor Mahone Assistant Editors: Karris Rae, Aiman Tariq, Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Editorial Assistants: Mia Bonds, Alexandria Knight Victoria de Benedicty, UNTITLED Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson Letter from the Guest Editor…
Read MoreRhumbline Lucinda Kempe __________ Comus was a black Labrador and came from a breeder on Long Island. Rhumbline Retrievers is run by Susan and her husband Joe. Rhumbline is a nautical term for a straight line between two points.1 Both Susan and her husband had worked in the merchant marine.…
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