Leaving Leaf River by Hannah Kroonblawd The dining room’s hardwood floor was waxed so mirror-like that Rebekah could see her face reflected off it. Mom had never put down a rug, thinking it too expensive or too stuffy or too much like Jenna Fairchild’s dining room, all cut glass and…
Read MoreWinter with Periwinkle by Redfern Boyd Summer gets all the glory. People talk about their lives changing during the hot months. Our season was winter, especially the limbo between Christmas and New Year’s. That time belonged to us, me and Periwinkle, and to our families, who lived the other eleven…
Read MoreApple By Joey Poole My father wasn’t into Spock ears and toy phasers and such. He hated the term “Trekkie,” and he didn’t have a wall full of still-boxed action figures of Worf in all his different uniforms. We didn’t go to Star Trek conventions or stand in line for…
Read MoreAccident By Aharon Levy * For fifty-seven years the river had done what it was supposed to and nobody had given it a thought. But now its level was down to where it was all some people talked about, revealing the slimy stones and rusted shopping carts it had always…
Read MoreQueen for a Day by Emily Collins I find my mother in the garage curled like a cat on top of the washing machine—something she hasn’t done since I was small and hurting and drunk off her love. I stand beside the washing machine and shake Mother gently. Her shoulder…
Read MoreTwo Flash Stories by Laton Carter This Pleasing Sting Lady Mary Wroth was having a devil of a time with Auto-Correct. In this strang labourinth how shall I turne? she cried out. But her words were deleted and revised: In this strangled labor, without shallots I return. Shallots. Had…
Read MoreMake Up Forever by Anu Kandikuppa I haven’t broken completely with my sister, but we don’t get along well with each other. Actually we can barely speak one civil word to each other. She has a way of looking me up and down when we meet that makes me want…
Read MoreFOMO By William Auten Today at ten in the morning, Mr. Snickerdoodle isn’t having much to do with the scenery and the commotion and the crew and the props passing back and forth in front of him so many times that neither his tawny eyes nor his tufted ears can…
Read MoreNo Sweeter Fat by Jess E. Jelsma I first discover I am pregnant in the grimy employee bathroom at Archibald’s Steakhouse. The room is so small that, sitting on the seat with my knees spread, I can reach out and lay my palms against all four cinder block walls. The…
Read MoreA Bad Seed by A.I. Chow Although Sarah had always gotten along with her mother, it wasn’t until her mother returned to China that they began to talk to each other like normal people. Which was to say, her mother stopped calling herself “Mommy.” It was okay in Chinese but…
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