by Jason Grant The entire king-sized bed is mine now, but I can’t seem to move from the left side to the right because on the nights you were here—laying there—if I dared move from my side to yours in the middle of the night it was like I-was-crossing-some-boundary you-needed…
by Fabrizia Faustinella One of my attending physicians, during residency, made sure that every patient who had a birthday while in the hospital would be celebrated. He would step inside the room, followed by students, residents, and nurses and present the patient with a card, a cupcake with candle, and…
by Savannah Todd Our faces are wet with tears as we stand together on the beach, staring up at the yellow balloons. We must look crazy, standing here on the damp sand, huddled together to fight the cold rolling across the empty coastline, our fingers clutched around the bright colored…
by Jerri Jerreat The two women sat down. Karin had changed from ripped jeans into a long skirt, then back to dark jeans with a funky red and pink tee. She’d found an old eyeliner stick and used it. Cautiously. Silly, she was being silly, she told herself. After all,…
by Lisa Harris My grandmother’s best friend, Vi Cotterfield, knew God. She could see the pulse of God’s work in everything: in her vegetables as they grew, in the trees as they stayed firmly planted in the earth, and in the star filled sky. She could detect a vibration underneath…
by Emily Marcason-Tolmie Their suitcases were stacked like puzzle pieces in the far reaches of the car. Bridget and her younger sister, Lucy, sat in the back seat with their heads slightly touching. Lucy flipped through one of her mother’s fashion magazines circling all the dresses she thought were pretty…
by Aviendha Francisco “You cannot have something for nothing.” It grinned at me, a smile devoid of emotion and full of teeth. It scratched its mangy fur and stared at me with eyes white as milk, wide as saucers. The green velvet divan underneath its cracked hooves provided an interesting…
by Tobie Shapiro The man had been tearing through the closet in ten-minute sessions of escalating deranged frenzy. The woman observed with decreasing detachment. “Honey. Stop.” His argument: “If I quit now,” he looked up with obsession in his eyes, “all this was an embarrassing waste of time. If you…
by Ariella Neulander “Shall we take my Prius?” suggests my daughter. She thinks I don’t know why she’s asking, but I do. And I won’t have it. It’s bad enough that she’s decided to come with me to my doctor appointment; she’s not going to take over the driving too….
by Robert Steward Lisbon, Portugal 2003 “Um bilhete de volta para Cacém, se faz favor,” I said to the man in the railway station ticket office. “Cacém?” he asked, tapping away on his computer. He had a Benfica football badge on the lapel of his blue jacket. “Sim,” I replied. Next…
By: Patrick R. Roden There was a dense, low hanging fog forming on the grounds of the Maine State Prison in Thomaston. This time of year, late fall, was notorious for such occurrences. In a few weeks time, this entire lawn would be covered with blankets of fresh snow, but…