When we awoke, we found a great curtain of linked metal rungs had been lowered to earth from the sky. The chain mail drape connected land and sky and ran as far the eye could see, across the ocean
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
In a Handful of Dust
A witch wind was howling out in the desert. I was praying for a storm to scour Coaling Depot 6 down to the ground, wipe it right off the Arizona Territory map. Apart from prayer, I still had a shot
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Francis Valencia Ortiz
For all his life, Frank had been at war with the willows. They sprouted in and around the stream, clogged the irrigation ditches, and choked off the water flow.
His land, a narrow plain between ... [+]
His land, a narrow plain between ... [+]
Short Fiction
Hair Today
Randall stood before his bathroom mirror – gazing at the enormous, glistening dome that was his head. Creams, lotions, infused oils, battery-powered skull caps; he had deployed them all in his
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Things with Permanence
My husband's nose changed first—a nearly imperceptible spot-the-difference puzzle on a face I'd known for twenty-two years. Through our kitchen's bay windows, the morning sunlight highlighted his
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Blueberry and Sky
There is no cheerful clatter of pans, or old Beatles records spinning in the living room. No warm cinnamon smell fills the air – only burnt coffee. For a moment, I'm half expecting Papa to swoop me
...
[+]
Short Fiction
It Began With Bananas
January 26, 1906
Forty-seven days have passed and the bananas in my kitchen are still green. They remain untouched and unmoved since I brought them home from market. To my eye they appea ... [+]
Forty-seven days have passed and the bananas in my kitchen are still green. They remain untouched and unmoved since I brought them home from market. To my eye they appea ... [+]
Short Fiction
Cracks in the Wall
"It's an old building," Becky said, when Peter asked her.
"Do you get them in your apartment, too?"
She'd given him a look, then, as if she thought he was trying to score an invite into he ... [+]
"Do you get them in your apartment, too?"
She'd given him a look, then, as if she thought he was trying to score an invite into he ... [+]
Short Fiction
Grandpa's Painting
There was an old painting in my grandparents' attic. Neither beautiful nor ugly, it simply depicted an empty room with no figures, an old living room with an armchair, library, and fireplace
...
[+]
Short Fiction
A Light in the Storm
Pa had always had a lot of respect for Sam's grandmother.
That must have been at least partly to do with what people in the village used to say about her.
Pa used to say that civilization took ... [+]
That must have been at least partly to do with what people in the village used to say about her.
Pa used to say that civilization took ... [+]