Take ’em Both John Janelle Backman __________ The only other customer in the pet shop sidled up to my right, like someone about to whisper a secret. I couldn’t turn my head toward him to get a good look. Short, that I could tell—at least a head shorter than me.…
Read MoreThe Cat Boy Jean-Marc Duplantier __________ When my sister-in-law Amy died, Pascal, her seven-year-old son, moved in with us, and he brought his cat Minou with him. On that first night, I watched from the door of the guest room as my wife Christina kissed Pascal, tucked him in, and…
Read MoreShapeshifter Patience Mackarness __________ Minette turns squirrel and streaks up the trunk of a young oak tree, pausing on a branch twelve feet from the ground. Her long fur is splotched like sunlight, her ears tawnily tufted, her golden eyes rimmed mascara-black. There are Siberian tree-cats in her ancestry, and…
Read MoreDread Randall Brown __________ Attie shone the iPhone’s flashlight in her sister Isabel’s face and, with her left hand, knocked her awake. It had been only six hours since their dog Lucky returned after a week, mad, foaming, stumbling through the gates and into their seven acres on the Philadelphia’s…
Read MoreLet the Bodies Hit the Floor: A Cycle Alexa Doran __________ If you attended the funeral for my Trapper Keeper’s iron-on patch, Frank the Frog, in my fifth grade homebase, or watched me lug a dog dish over to my golden retriever Lisa Frank folder, you are likely unconvinced by…
Read MoreThe Hologram of the Cat Meg Pokrass __________ Today, Muffin barks at the front door for an hour. She nips at our ankles, though not in a painful way. Not in a way that means, ANIMAL ALERT. What is it, girl? we say. Maybe it’s the hologram of the cat,…
Read MoreAll Music: Espressivo March ’24 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Abbie Skinner Guest Editor: Karris Rae Assistant Editors: Aiman Tariq, Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Editorial Assistants: Mia Bonds, Alexandria Knight Shawnda McCollum, Rhythm Section, inspired by “Sound of Silence” by Disturbed Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson…
Read MoreCemetery One Nighter Paul Corman-Roberts __________ It isn’t the name she told you, the name that isn’t her real name but the name they told your friend, heartbroken back in the pizza joint you hit up where you first squeezed her thigh under the table out of your friend’s sight, neither of you knowing she was death, happy to clasp your fingers…
Read MoreThe Music’s Gonna Get You Margo Williams __________ Caitlin saw him from across the tavern. He was at least ten years older than she, maybe more. His dark hair grew in waves to his shoulders; his five o’clock shadow was sexy. He strummed his guitar with such purpose. Long pale…
Read MoreLittle by Little Susan Tepper __________ A drum roll woke me at 3am. When I saw that time lit in red on my alarm clock I almost had a hemorrhage. The racket was coming from the downstairs apartment. I got up and kicked the floor a few times. No change. …
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