A New Kind of Literary Pulse

The house takes a day to dismantle. Goodwill gets the furniture. Meghan sets a ground rule for the rest: George is allowed three seconds to decide where each thing should go: in the car (to be driven ...  [+]

Josh is gone, but I see him everywhere. Even now, it's his reflection I see in the puddle as the storm brings me back to reality. I shiver. Seems I'm always cold these days. I need to get my shit ...  [+]

They sat together in comfortable silence, having been in each other's company for over ten years.   One of their favourite places was on the swing chair, overlooking the backyard, gently moving ...  [+]

momofgale: My husband left us, and now my 12-year-old daughter is depressed. How can I help her? Top Answer: 15 upvotes 2 downyvotes  cityyouthcounselor: Your daughter is grieving and likely feels ...  [+]

The old woman opened her eyes, blinked a few times, and sat up in bed. She turned this way and that, peering at the objects in the small room: a low, narrow bed with fairytale figures carved in the ...  [+]

I couldn't believe it. "10,000 Kroners! That's outrageous!"   I was deep in the Troms region of Norway on the Nordost Road. I had been for a while. At the moment, I was trying to cross the ...  [+]

The last apparition of Halley's Comet was in 1986, approaching Earth as close as 0.4 astronomical units. Halley takes a long journey to visit us. The comet follows an elliptical orbit that reaches ...  [+]

On his first day at the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation, twenty-five year old Masti Govind Swamy, named after the village of Masti, where his father, not he, was born, found to his ...  [+]

My life changed the day Cleopatra corporealized in the outdoor food court during our lunch rush. Corporealized. Bet you're surprised I know such a big word, but I do love me a good ghost story. Love ...  [+]

My shift is over. And not a minute too soon. I'm on the verge of tears. I'll have to be back in less than seven hours. My armpits are clammy, I'm feeling uncomfortable, and I just want to go home and ...  [+]

They always say the final sense to go is hearing, but touch lasts right 'til the end. Not over the whole body, though; I can't feel Dot's hand in mine, but this fucking diaper itches like blazes. I ...  [+]

The realtor moves from room to room in silence. Charlotte and I follow, anxiously awaiting his verdict.   Through the kitchen, the living room, the study. Upstairs, in and out of bedrooms. He ...  [+]

The way Little Miss Perfect tells it, you'd think I was head of a gang of street thugs when I was a kid. We weren't thugs, we were twelve. All we wanted was some prize money, or at least a bit of ...  [+]

It was a muggy morning at Cozy Cottage Nursing Home, and the arthritis was bothering me pretty bad. Hurt to move. Hurt to type. Still does, matter of fact. That's why, when they asked me for an ...  [+]

"This is the last straw," Alma said. She had just opened the mail at the kitchen table.   Sitting opposite, Walter peered over the top of his newspaper. "What straw is that?"   "It's anothe ...  [+]

Terrydale was a hamlet much too small to be located on any map, and so war came to it as it comes to such places—not through the trampling of armies over its quaint town square, or the burning of ...  [+]

The DeliverBot drops the box at my feet and wheezes out a metallic "Happy Birthday" before flying away. At first, I think it's a mistake, because it isn't my birthday. At least, I don't think it is ...  [+]

I had just gotten out of the gas station and bought what I usually bought on my little Sunday night trips—a pack of reds, a water bottle (one of the purified waters. Spring water is quite gross to ...  [+]

My daughters run across the hard-packed sand, their blonde hair—Maureen's hair—streaming out behind them. They are three little replicas of my wife. As always, the worry grips my heart with icy ...  [+]