Jake’s Shoes
A layer of early morning fog hung a few feet above the ground as Jake lifted the latch on the gate and swung it open. As the small flock of sheep filed out of t...
A layer of early morning fog hung a few feet above the ground as Jake lifted the latch on the gate and swung it open. As the small flock of sheep filed out of t...
It was mid-afternoon when Beatriz Miranda to all present, which included her four grandchildren and her husband Alessio, announced that dinner would be a little...
BUSTED FENCE In the photograph, it’s Halloween, 1956. I’m sitting on a split rail fence next to my girlfriend. We’re in the second grade. I’m smiling, but her m...
My mother drinks Jamaican over-proof white rum through her toes. It goes down easier that way. Ten toes consume much more than one tiny mouth. Mother’s toes slu...
After my fiancée said she found someone else and broke off our engagement, I’d been devastated. I grew weary of friends and relatives saying, “Miguel, I’m so so...
A few days after my wife Celestine died suddenly from encephalitis, I got a phone call that I suspected was some form of condolence. I had not recovered enough ...
Robert made his preparations; he needn’t wait until four skeletal dudes rode horses down Main Street. As he saw it, the whole vibe was similar to Zombie S...
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness which creates it. So, to overcome his anxiety, Asan modifies his mindset. An easy enough thing to ...
File Content Abstract: The following document is a Certified Tech-Trued, verbatim transcript of an antique analog audio cassette tape recording found in the rui...
John Hand worked for City Transit twisting wrenches in the bus barns for more than thirty years. He retired, and decided to garden and to grow tobacco, because ...
She feels quivery, detached from everything familiar, even her own kitchen. The tea kettle screams violently, and Helen Sadler, a small-boned woman just a shad...
Butter turns his head toward me from his bed in the bike trailer and I can tell from the look in his eyes he knows I’m late. I can’t really do anything about th...
A short boy with stubby legs, broad shoulders, and a squashed-up face, Donny Clatterbuck hated team sports—baseball, football, and basketball. He was quick and ...
It is nine o’clock, the crown jewel of the morning. The diamond sunlight glistens blindingly on the rippling matrix of the bayou. It is a millionth carbon-copy ...
I flew north over the parkway, avoiding the rush-hour traffic. The intersection there is a chore, and I’d needed to make some time. Flying would be easiest. No ...
Harold’s parents were allergic to most pets. Sometimes, he brought them home just to be sure. He made valiant efforts with kittens and puppies, but when he trie...
I love the first day of class each year. The oil paint and turpentine aromas become concentrated in August, when they close the building for the summer. I inhal...
On a busy Brooklyn sidewalk stands an oak tree. He taps messages to me in Morse code on the wall outside my bedroom window, pleading for me to let him in. It’s ...
They said an old man left his eyes open in the house years ago and lay there for days before being discovered. Nobody ever lived in it again. We kids found the ...
Laurel wasn’t sure why she tapped accept when her mother-in-law’s name came up on her phone. Habit, she supposed. “Did you know they put a micro-chip into your ...
I wasn’t going to drink again. I’d had it with the days after, the strange awakenings in strangers’ beds, the lost jobs, lost phones, lost key...
No matter how ardently she yearned for a weekend of sun and fun (or fun and sun, she wasn’t so intractable), Betty knew instinctively to keep her hopes lo...
8836 Blvd. E. (Apt. 3K) W.N.Y., N.J.07093 March 24, 2018 OCCUPANT of Apt. 2K 8836 Blvd. E. W. New York, NJ 07093 Dear Neighbor: Just because I HAVEN’T (an...
During another wet East Coast holiday she sat in the Sea View public bar drinking wine too early for her own good. Cutting out a new husband from magazines in t...
In the downtown core the interns leave by the plus-fifteens, the glass and steel walkways fifteen feet above street level. The traffic below is unnavigable, ful...
The road is long and straight, the land flat as a table. Even in the dark I could drive fast, but I don’t. I know that three miles ahead there’s a turn coming u...
“I’m telling you the truth,” Araceli shouted. “Because I’m a bad kid, you don’t believe me, right? But even bad kids don’t always lie.” Miss Ellis shushed Arace...
Walter wakes up with Martha shaking him. “Honey, somebody’s pounding on the front door.” Thump thump thump. Walter slips out of bed and pulls his robe on over h...
He never had a chance with her, but they were too young to realize it. She was Jewish; her father owned a chain of jewelry stores strung from New York to Miami...
El Fuerte, Mexico, founded in 1564 This story could take place anywhere and anytime. But it doesn’t. In the first month of the year nothing really goes on. Oh,...
I’ve never been to Northern Africa, but I can promise that the sun was hot. Hot, tripling in size, and the texture of new rust. I stood at the edge of an untill...
The baying of the hounds echoed through the bayou. Chained at the ankles, Robin and Ian stumbled through the murky swamp water. Swarms of gnats and mosquitoes b...
“It’s yellow and it doesn’t rust,” I said. “It’s easy to work into jewelry. It’s relatively scarce. That’s all that sets gold apart from other metallic elements...
The man shakes his head and pounds a fist into the wall in a series of loud thuds. “You…make…me…sick…you…dad…blamed…sissy,” he spits out to the rhythm of his th...
I weeded the yard around 5 a.m. to avoid the amused eyes of the neighbors, a thirtyish couple that employed lawn specialists, and smirked hello each time they s...
Dan was putting the finishing touches on the first dog the world’s seen in decades. Well, that isn’t exactly true. There are tons of robotic puppies...
I signed into Here My Call before going to work. Don’t know why I bothered. I never had any notifications. Who would respond to a call like mine? But this time ...
The kids at the end of Lout’s Street called it “Her Road.” It was a quiet, sad street containing a single decrepit house. Ivy and brambles had crawled across th...