Dana Diehl Three years after the pilot’s wife died, her sister flew across the Atlantic Ocean to visit America for the first time. The sister’s name was Anna. Anna, the wild, redheaded,...
Ryan Habermeyer Winner, Fiction Contest A foot had been uncovered from a sandbar the night after the solstice. Nobody was sure how long it had suffered there in anonymity as it had been found...
George Morgan Scott Unnoticed by the prattling guests, little Toby, twitching with the terrible twos, climbs up on the stuffed chair, totters, catches his balance, reaches for the security...
Emily Rinkema I wake up because my father is at the door. “Want to go fishing?” he whispers, and I know it must be too early for school, too early to be waking up. The light in the hall is...
As he waits for a human voice, Dan remembers the look on his daughter Kelsey’s face at Christmas when she gave him a year’s membership to the over-fifty dating club. ...
On the tips of bare toes, arm stretched so far it hurt, I placed the final red brick. This was the top of my tower. I had more Legos, but I could only reach so high. I stepped back to see what I had...
Wilma clutched her empty lunch sack and watched the jellyfish bob and sway out of rhythm with the Andean flute music the aquarium played on Mondays. It was her seventh visit to the jellies exhibit in...
Sometimes she found herself in a yellow room. She sat by the window or by the table or in a rolling chair. Just a gravel courtyard outside and a strip of brilliant sky. The smell of Lysol and...
I do and do not know how it came to this. Earlier today, he trapped a squirrel in his yard. He put the trap in the cab of his truck, put a blanket over the trap so the animal wouldn’t be...
Connor walked over to the glass double-doors of Jackie Jump-Up’s and searched inside for a glimpse of Suzie. He could make out the outlines of the mechanical animal band, still and silent after an...