The front door is already locked but I find Dan hanging around the tree in the backyard, legs curled up around the topmost branch as if he’s the Cheshire cat or something. No stripes, but the swagger to pass as one, all smug and smiling. Eminently punchable. He gestures at me to come up, casually, the way someone might give orders to a dog. The last time I saw him he owned a slobbery mastiff he would feed Grade A beef to.
Continue reading “Treehouse by Hanwen Zhang”
“Put ’em on t’ side,” Grandad croaked. He must have heard the kitchen door click open and shut.
He’d sent me to Mrs Byrne’s on the corner of Wightman Street for twenty Senior Service. “You can earn yer tea,” he said. “But mind I want change.” He gave me two half crowns. “Should be a bob.” He jabbed the stem of his briar at my face. “Think on.”
Continue reading “Sixty a Day Man by Andy Larter”
Saudade: (n.) a nostalgic longing to be near to something or someone that is distant; the desire to be near again to what has been loved and then lost, “the love that remains.”
Continue reading “Just Give It Time by Matthew J. McKee”
The Forest. 1995-Nov-07. Prince George, BC. 1805 hours.
Mom taught me the stories of our people, from the moon goddess, whose light enchanted the night, to the banshee, whose scream was an omen of death. She practiced the paganism and witchcraft she’d learned from Nana, who’d long since gone to be with Donn—Lord of the Dead.
Continue reading “Donn and the Mourning Moon by Brandon Nadeau”
My landlord Enid lived above my garden unit in a tchotchke-coated little old lady apartment which I had never visited until that fall evening. A Sunday. On her kitchen table were placemats of art nouveau nymphs and salt and pepper shakers fashioned like bowling pins. She handed me a coffee mug in the shape of a cartoon character and said, “I hope this is good.” I didn’t say how I like my coffee, so on her own volition Enid put in lots of cream and lots of sugar.
Continue reading “The Random Roommate by Adam Kaz”
“They’ve come to collect Max. We’ll be up in ten minutes. You can keep him occupied for a bit longer, can’t you?”
“Yes, but…he’s wondering what the delay is.”
“Does he know?”
“He’s in the classroom with me now.”
“Please, not a hint as to what’s happening. If he runs off on his social worker…”
“I don’t think he’s in the mood for football right now, sir. I’ll make sure he’s occupied though.”
Continue reading “Of a Lie – by J.M. Munn”
Clothes have gone out of fashion because public life has disappeared. People continue to get out of bed but they don’t waste time getting dressed. People don’t dress for work and they don’t go to church. Men and women no longer wear underwear. That’s modern America. Many people no longer even use the toilet. Late century sidewalks are dirtier today than they were in the Wild West. It was once due to the number of horses.
Continue reading “Deliria, 2068 by David Lohrey”
It’s a Thursday, and Ben watches Ellie through sleep-filled eyes as she dresses in the gloom of their bedroom. She rolls thick, woollen tights over her legs and pulls a long skirt up to her waist-line. She adds a bulky cardigan.
Oh, he says. Sexy.
Give over, she laughs. And go back to sleep.
Sexy teacher, he says, below the cover, his voice already thickening with sleep.
Continue reading “The Canal by Jill Craig”
Beth dies the night she packs her honeymoon suitcase. She folds a red-fringed shawl and places it carefully on top of her clothes. She zips up the suitcase and wheels it to the front door.
“I’m good to go.”
Her husband, Pete, walks into the room.
“What do you mean you’re good to go? Where are we going?”
“Oh, Pete.”
Before we went inside, Christian and I sipped on some coffee he had ordered at Starbucks and conversed in his car.
“She was livid,” Christian said. “Slammed the window wiper on the windshield and busted a headlight with her boot.”
“Because you invalidate Otherkins?”
“Yeah.”
“But she’s okay with you being a Trump supporter?”
“Yeah,” Christian laughed.
He knew I found ways to drop in his affiliation with conservatism and right-wing politics. It excited me to be wanted by someone that simultaneously hated me.
Continue reading “The Freakshow by Athena Vasquez – Adult Content”
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