by Mark Ali The balcony door slid open and Warren stepped outside. It was another Oakland winter. The winds were westerly. The climate was Mediterranean. Rain was absent on this evening, the sky was clear. The air was sharp and crisp. Warren moved to the balcony to escape the rising…
by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro “Beauty Marks” was first published by The Coachella Review. My mother prized beauty marks. Every day she penciled one on her right cheek. Once, the butcher, getting flirtatious, pinched her cheek, then staggered back, jaws agape, when it smeared. I had one low on my back,…
by Mary Julia Klimenko Julia Pearl had been to therapy enough years to understand it was her job to find things to do and her job not to complain if her life wasn’t going the way she wanted it to go. Her therapist always pointed out, when Julia Pearl complained…
by Philip A. Kaplan If I were to ask you what is the most technologically complex, financially convoluted product you’ve bought during the past number of years, I’d venture to say you’d answer an automobile, a computer, a smart phone or a wide flat screen high def color TV. But…
by Daniel Davis Tammy’s fingers drummed against the coffee mug. For the twentieth time in the past hour, she glanced at the cabinet above the fridge, the one she had to use a stepladder to reach. She could see the bottles inside, beckoning. Just a nip, as her grandmother would…
by Don McMann Vince put the big Mercedes in reverse and pressed lightly on the accelerator. “Gentle, now,” he said aloud. The car began to move. He gripped the wheel with both fists. It was dark in the garage, but bright sunshine outside. He squinted as he looked into the…
by M. A. Bookout We were flying N.O.E. (Nap of the Earth) low and fast. The UH-1H Huey, Helicopter quickly rose, just missing a mountain top. I had my feet hanging out and swore I could drag them across the peak as we sped past. We dipped suddenly into a valley,…
by Michael C. Keith I speak now from under the surgeon’s hacksaw as he removes my cranium to access my brain. I’m an involuntary cadaver donor murdered so that a medical school can reveal the secrets of the human form to its students. They surround my lifeless body as the…
by Linda Scotto I watched Bill Leede shape his mouth like a fish and blow smoke circles into the air. I put my finger through one and pretended to spin it around. We were on a 10 minute break from the glass blowing factory, standing outside where we could catch…
by Ian Johnson Rosie sat cross-legged on the hardwood floor of her empty living room, unassembled furniture parts strewn around her like small towns at the base of a big mountain. She held an Allen wrench in one hand, the assembly pamphlet in the other. The tip of her tongue…