Category: Fiction

Stray Bullets

Lacy Arnett Mayberry Once a year, a bus appeared at school in the middle of the day—alien and out of place, larger than we remembered from even just that morning—for a safety training exercise....

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I Don’t Want Me Either

Carly Alaimo Morning   Baby boosts herself up to stand using couch. Can now steal Big Girl’s puzzle. Big Girl brings down board over Baby’s head. To keep from screaming, Mommy recites the script...

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The Bayou

Amy DeBellis At fourteen, your first kiss is quivering, soap-bubble fragile, broken open by your grandfather’s rough voice: “The hell is this?” Even at seventy he’s powerful, six foot three...

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The Loquacious Cowboy Gets Abducted by the Laconic Aliens

Aaron Sandberg Typical American to never shut up, they think. Doesn’t he know they come in peace? They wonder why they picked this part of the planet to survey. His rusty spurs clink against the...

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A Psalm

Brian Russell Roberts Some songs feel exactly like drowning. Especially when they’re sung by a plain-looking miner whose every breath feels like it’s his last, sung as if he was locked in the...

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No One is Coming to Save You

Sarah Bradley BANANA BREAD          Every day we asked ourselves if we should leave, and every day the answer was yes, only we didn’t know how. We weren’t...

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Søren Weeps Piña Colada

Helena Olufsen We arrive in mojito-scented fogs and splay the contents of our suitcases across every bed, dresser, and chaise lounge. Our new home is a white sandstone palace with tall arch doorways,...

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Parrot

Maeve Barry 2023 Spring Fiction Contest Winner Janet lies in the bathtub with the phone shouldered to her ear. In a long lace dress with its back zipper open. It sags off her chest. She sits in her...

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All Bleeding Eventually Stops

Leslie Doyle My youngest brother, Jim, is looking really weird up there at the altar right now. Rocking on his heels nervously but also yawning like he’s about to fall asleep. As if he’d just...

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Sometimes the Going

Leigh Claire Schmidli It’s not often the case, but we’re all hungry for dinner about the same time that night. Me and Anka, my landlady. Her fat-cat Bazo. We collide in the tiny kitchen, circling...

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