EDWARD MCINNIS: 98
My friend, in his early 70’s, was out and about doing errands during the most recent brutal heat wave. Dying from the heat, he stopped at Dunkin’ to get an iced tea. He said to the teenaged server,...
View ArticleHEIDI BELTRAN: Hold My Hand
The market was crowded, lot of noises, people chatting out loud. I didn’t want to lose you so I grabbed your hand. Felt so different, so distant. I thought: what could I possibly have done wrong? I had...
View ArticleROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: Spreading the Word
Time to launch my poem into the world. The journey begins with abstract watercolors – yellow swirls, purple splatters. I print my poem in 12-pt Arial. Since cutting feels predictable, I rip my words...
View ArticleSHARON MOLLOY: Presentation
To surprise the visitor, they bring out their special table, small and rarely used. With great care, they choose and position the treat on a dish gleaming like gold. This temptation should be...
View ArticleEMMA FOSTER: Crossed Circuits
The boy pressed the wires together. A faint spark jerked his science fair project to life. “What have you done?” the computer’s voice sobbed, digits and code degenerating. “I’m sorry, I don’t have an...
View ArticleKEN GOSSE: Black Widowing
Widowed three times in ten years, her insurance provider had fears that she’d be a claimant for yet one more payment and meanwhile, though still shedding tears, she married again (how many more men?)...
View ArticleVIV BURGESS: Rise and Fall
Sugar used her loaf, whipping up half-baked ideas that proved successful and eventually raising enough dough to buy a bakery. Seeing profits roll in by beating the competition was icing on the cake,...
View ArticleELIZABETH BARTON: Bountiful Harvest
I left a bowl of cucumbers on a folding table alongside a sign reading “Free.” Someone took the table but left the cukes. New strategy: I try car doors until I find one unlocked. Surreptitiously, I...
View ArticleJIM COURTER: Flush
Lou came flush to the game, with a wad of twenties, fifties, and hundreds. After winning that first hand, with a flush, he felt flush with victory. By midnight—broke, embarrassed—he knew he’d been...
View ArticleDAVID HOLLOWAY: We Have an App for That
I want an app that paints my ceiling and convinces my boss to give me a raise. One that teaches where the past years are. I want an app that cheats death, picks up drunk friends from the airport, and...
View ArticleALYCE CLARK: Finally!
Three days, four hours, twenty minutes… Two books (one science fiction, one fantasy). Three crossword puzzles and an adult coloring book. The house is clean. I’ve rolled all my coins. Remote control...
View ArticleSCOTT G. HARVEY: Cheap Laughs
Chronically vain and captive to status anxiety, I have only twice shopped at a dollar store. I was once taken to “Pound Town” by a friend in the UK. Several years later I found myself in “The Loonie...
View ArticleKATI BUMBERA: Aurora
Aurora used to be a good girl: did her homework, helped her mum, lit up the Arctic sky with magic. But at 15, she fell in with a gang of constellations. They loiter at the harbour, play pranks on the...
View ArticleBILL COX: Down the Plughole
Jean enjoyed doing the dishes. It gave her time to think. With her hands soaked in suds she considered her relationship with Jamie, looking for a sign about how to proceed. And when she pulled the plug...
View ArticleJIM COURTER: Under a Starry Sky
In their backyard on a starry night in August, watching for meteors, she says, “It blows my mind to think the universe is expanding.” “Mm,” he says. “Do you not find that amazing?” “I might when I get...
View ArticleHANNAH CLARK: Sailing the Seas of Love
He’s definitely the one. We simply must use his dad’s boat! Romantic weekends away sailing the sea, popping champagne, watching the sunset with his arms lovingly wrapped around me, talking about our...
View ArticleBOB THURBER: Road Map into the Heartland
Maybe my wife wasn’t as sharp as she looked. Despite a suitcase full of cash, she’d left a long paper trail, charging meals, motels, car rentals. I gave the info to my number one. He promised to bring...
View ArticleNICOLA M SWANN: Little monsters…
I see them from the bedroom mirror. They’ve grown wilful; mother’s side of the family. Looking after them in my forties came naturally, but now? A sigh escapes me. Nothing for it but to get rid of...
View ArticleKAY RAE CHOMIC: Evidence
The skeleton under our porch knew us all. Its secret harmed no one until a detective knocked at our door. We answered his questions. No, sir. Yes, sir. Never, sir. We double-locked the door, loaded the...
View ArticleJOHN H. DROMEY: Revolutionary Revelation
The professor of Earth Sciences droned on and on. Finally, he concluded, “Therefore, it should be obvious that our planetary well-being is directly associated with its ongoing rotation on its axis.”...
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