Fiction – Page 8 – The McNeese Review

Patrona

Patrona William Hawkins __________ There are small villages in the Italian countryside where the fairy is a saint — a young woman in a roughspun habit who sneaks into the bedrooms of all the baptized boys and girls with a loose tooth in their mouths. Those visited say the saint…

Tooth Appointment

Tooth Appointment Ben Larned __________ You don’t remember your last visit to the dentist. It’s been two years, maybe three. All the way here your gums itch. The waiting room has a sickly hue, a chemical smell that reminds you of metal scraping and drills whirring. If it weren’t for…

Snappers/The Man on the Mattress

Snappers/The Man on the Mattress Robb T. White __________ “You’re probably wondering what’s going on, right?” Asking yourself, ‘What happened’? ‘Where the hell am I?’ Can’t say I blame you,” he said, watching his eyes focus as he tried to turn his head one way and then the other. They…

The Dentist, The Bootlegger

The Dentist, The Bootlegger Meghan Louise Wagner __________ The drops went the same each month. I kept my hair under my cap and let Julian do the talking. After the boss counted the crates, he’d crack into a random bottle to sample. He’d take a couple glugs, swish, then nod…

The Death of Harold Cassidy

The Death of Harold Cassidy Colton Huelle __________ In the days following Harold Cassidy’s death, Joy’s Facebook feed was clogged with lengthy tributes to the late novelist and links to even lengthier blog posts about his contribution to American literature. Writers and critics of all stripes crawled out of the…

Balloons

Balloons Joan Bauer __________ When Sarah dropped Lily off around noon, she said she was just going to a half-hour tennis lesson. I invited her to come back here for coffee afterward, and she said she would like that. But she never came back. Outside, our two girls were…

Silhouette of a Girlhood

Silhouette of a Girlhood Meghana Mysore __________ Lakshmi winced when she heard a thudding from upstairs. The kettle was on for chai, and its whistle grew from a tame whisper to a high-pitched scream. She turned off the kettle and ran upstairs to the bathroom where Mamatha took her showers.…

Olympians

Olympians Kent Kosack __________ The kick becomes a glide in a graceful shuffle as Jon’s skis cruise along the cross-country trails carved into the ice-crusted snow of Lapland Lake, his body cruising with them, his thoughts and fears and hopes and memories cruising too, concurrent, behind, ahead, the same groomed…

Keep Times Good (Or the League to Save the Good Times)

Keep Times Good (Or the League to Save the Good Times) Joe Farley __________ Rex liked to have a good time. Rex liked to ensure everyone else was having a good time. Rex liked to keep times good. He played the towns centennial party. He played the townie bars, the…

The Boyfriend

The Boyfriend Ben Selesnick __________ The dining room was one of the larger rooms in Noah’s Atlantic-facing colonial. It had a vaulted ceiling, a glassed-encased display at one end of the cedar-cut table that held a collection of plaques and trophies he’d accrued over the past decade working as the…