You may have seen me. That is, if you ever look up into the airy spaces. Few do. Some look straight ahead into the distance, unseeing, sure of their path; some look down, watching out for things not to tread in; others glance sideways at pretty girls as they pass. Just occasionally a flawless morning or an irrepressible carefree mood will set the stroller’s eye a-wandering, and I may be taken in as one of several irritations on an otherwise symmetrical arrangement of planes and curves. Or the gaze may even rest on me for a moment, and the beholder wonder idly – such curiosity evaporates instantly – who I am supposed to be. Next time you pass St Paul’s on the south side, do look up. You will see five statues in various unlikely poses above a phoenix that perpetually does whatever a phoenix is supposed to do. I am the one on the right.
Continue reading “Stonechat by Stephen Silvester”Category: Fantasy
A Shoddy Business by David Rudd
Kenneth Waldron was a painter – quite a successful one – with a number of famous people seeking him out for portraits. It was mostly thanks to Cynthia Grossman, who had begun as his financial advisor before becoming his personal manager and, finally, his partner.
Continue reading “A Shoddy Business by David Rudd”Baggage By Richard Jones
Nate’s flight was late landing, it took forever to get off the plane, and then his bag didn’t come out.
“Son of a bitch.”
Continue reading “Baggage By Richard Jones”Kiri by Sarah Hozumi
Oslac toiled his way through the woods beyond his home, stopping to allow his daughter to catch up to him but not daring to look at her. His ears faithfully absorbed the beautiful sounds of his daughter humming to herself while picking her way among the roots of the trees, and his heart began to splinter. They had been walking for half a day now, their pace waylaid by Kiri’s wandering attention. He heard her attempt to whistle at a bird in a low branch nearby and thought about just turning home.
Still, the thing had to be done.
Continue reading “Kiri by Sarah Hozumi”Woven from Memory [*] by Dr A.A. Chibi
Long before Máire’s time, the village of Mallow was a peaceful settlement in Munster, its fields rich and its people rooted deep in the land. But in the late fifteenth century, calamity struck—a raid by an English militia descended like a plague.
Continue reading “Woven from Memory [*] by Dr A.A. Chibi”Blossoming Neon by Robin Linden
I meet Marla on an afternoon train from downtown to tomorrow. The seats are velvet and red, and I notice her because she has desolate eyes dusted in glitter and a smile that reminds me of a rotting cantaloupe. She is looking out the window like she wants to fuck the mountains that pass us by. I am looking at her.
Continue reading “Blossoming Neon by Robin Linden”Scales by David Henson
“Not trying to be nosy, Wilton, but why the latex gloves?”
Wilton, armed with a rational explanation, chuckles. “Well, Mr. Simms, I contracted a rash working in the flower garden, and my hands are slathered in oint—”
Continue reading “Scales by David Henson”The Scent of Eternity by Susmita Mukherjee
In the summer of 1997, when most men of his age were discovering the quiet dignity of cholesterol, Gopal Banerjee decided to make a perfume that would outlive death itself. Not metaphorically, he meant it quite literally. “Eternity,” he called it, though Calvin Klein had already used the name. Gopal didn’t mind; he believed trademarks were for those who lacked vision.
Continue reading “The Scent of Eternity by Susmita Mukherjee”A Castle For the Roller Derby Queen
(The image is of the actual Andy, who graciously posed)
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Charity and Baby Hope had been searching for the perfect place to build a castle. Magick Minion Andy had done some in person searches and returned with the best prospect, which he explained to Charity in his surprisingly good Wiccan. “Surprisingly good” because your basic Cat, although all are born understanding the Wiccan tongue, has a bit of difficulty speaking it due to some of the trickier elongated vowels. Whenever your basic Cat meets a difficulty that really is not his problem he ignores it, but Andy is not your basic Cat, even though he does somewhat closely resemble a heavily used mop head more than he does an immortal Magick Gray Tabby.
Continue reading “A Castle For the Roller Derby Queen”Hell’s Half Acre by Danyl A Doyle
In the morning, the sun had long since risen above the horizon, casting stark, foreboding shadows over the Yampa River. We stood at the edge of the water, my wooden boat bobbing gently on the surface. The wind whispered secrets through the cottonwoods and I felt the weight of my history bearing down upon us. We had married, and this handsome kind man had promised to spend the rest of his life with me, knowing I was doomed to run this river every two weeks for all time.
We pushed off from the shore.
Continue reading “Hell’s Half Acre by Danyl A Doyle”