The dog never speaks without a pencil in his paw. On good days he may draw for you a line, a rectangle, a box, a room that becomes; what do you want? Might it be a bodega in some Latin American country, a taverna, a shack where drinks and mescal are served, a room where women also give away their forgetfulness potions. He is never quite precise as to which, and the voice that accompanies the blossoming picture is merely shading pencil.
Continue reading “The Dog Who Could Draw by Stephen J Kimber”Category: General Fiction
It all goes dark by Adam Kluger
Moose was one of Bugowski’s best friends but it was getting late and time to hit the hay and stop talking about sports and how to start acting more like a fucking adult instead of a stubborn and terrified man-child, perpetually stuck in the mud.
Continue reading “It all goes dark by Adam Kluger “Cycle by Frederick K Foote
I was a son of segregation born in a small Virginia village. My heritage was discrimination without the possibility of assimilation.
At age six, on my first day at our all-Black school, I played the fool and set myself down beside a strange, weird creature named Bernice Lighthorse.
Continue reading ” Cycle by Frederick K Foote”The Return to the Lakehouse by Adam Kluger
The meme had been replaying again and again in Booger’s mind.
“They are eating the cats, eating the dogs, eating the pets in Springfield.”
It was about 50 days away from a quite consequential presidential election.
Bugowski was pushing 60 and he was just as big a mess as he always was.
“Have you read the secret life of plants?” Rooster asked Booger as they unloaded the cooler full of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Poland Spring with lime (the most carbonated of all seltzers) and all the other boxes, bags and items for another guy’s weekend. “The plants communicate through chemical emissions, I read an excerpt…not surprising given their predominant place on the planet and the way they all live together harmoniously…beautifully, really.”
Continue reading “The Return to the Lakehouse by Adam Kluger”
Week 541: They Are Dripping Me Insane
Insanity
I have lived in the same apartment since October 1998. That was not by design, but it has worked out that way. Until I settled here, I had not lived in one space longer than four consecutive years, including childhood. Something always happened; nothing has yet to happen here. The building was sold last year, but it was just a case of meeting a new boss, the same as the old boss.
Continue reading “Week 541: They Are Dripping Me Insane”Is There Anybody There? By Michael Smith
Acacia knew her calling from the age of ten. Noticing all her clothes were labeled ‘MEDIUM’ and, being a highly impressionable girl, she naturally assumed the universe, or possibly a parallel one, was offering a clear hint as to her correct career path.
Continue reading “Is There Anybody There? By Michael Smith”Alterations by JD Clapp
I was looking out the front window, watching the snow fall, waiting for the mailman to come with my disability check. Jesus, the snow is sticking now, and my tires are bald. I needed to deposit that check today. I was out of food, running low on whiskey, and I still owed Mrs. Schmidt half the rent for this little shithole of a duplex. Fuck my life. Then, I got the call.
Continue reading “Alterations by JD Clapp”Hannibal, Missouri by: Amber Bell
“Follow me,” a broad-shouldered woman wearing a name tag that said Deborah told Jade.
Jade followed her through a glass door, past a man working a register, and down a hall lined with half-open boxes.
Continue reading “Hannibal, Missouri by: Amber Bell”The Silver-Lined Ridge by Matthew J. Richardson
Fluttering canvas frames a view that has tugged at Ralph Nilsen’s dreams. The mountain is dark against the star-smeared sky, curved like a sickle, beckoning. Ralph permits himself a few moments to glance upwards, to watch the spindrift pluming across the Milky Way. Moments are all Ralph has. He will not be back, not for another season, not when he is within three hundred vertical metres…
Continue reading “The Silver-Lined Ridge by Matthew J. Richardson”Directions From Simi to Long Beach and All the Life In Between
a short story by T.C. Barrera
from the yet-to-find-a-home short story collection, “Counting Birds”
“You know how it is, Eli. Mickey says you gotta get to this one today. You’ve just gotta. This guy’s paying a big, and I mean, a BIG fuckin’ rush fee; that Mickey, of course, is charging for on top of the doubled fee that he was already going to charge. Mickey says, if he asks, it is due—”
Continue reading “Directions From Simi to Long Beach and All the Life In Between”

