Slice of Life - page 2 - all works

Short Fiction

Knox

Knox had been hanging around 8th street since before they put in the ATMs. We didn't know where he lived, but that's where he'd been ever since I'd moved here about ten years ago. He used a cracked ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Modern Love 5 min Mature Audience

Long Way Home

Sarena Kuhn

My mother told me I should never date a guy who didn't have his own car. She said that it set some bad precedent, mixed up the lines between provider and provided-for. There's nothing more ladylike ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 4 min

Counting on the Waves

Tighe Flatley

He didn't see the woman standing next to him until her face, white and round as the moon, was peering into the car. Her gray hair, long and thin, danced in the wind.
Her hand moved in circles ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait Love & Loss 5 min Mature Audience

Birds, Circling, Everywhere

Matthew Hose

Tomorrow will mark a year since I had my stroke. It's an occasion that, according to my daughter, Ginny, I should view as important. But I've spent enough time staring at death; I don't want to think ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life 3 min Mature Audience

I Ain't Your Mama

Melkon Charchoglyan

Mrs Wallace had to jaywalk to make the bus, which was about to pull away. It wasn't easy. She was overweight and her left knee, which hadn't been feeling so good of late, felt spongey. Breathing ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life 2 min Mature Audience

Waiting for Another Train

Mark William Butler

There he was, waiting for another train. He was so sick of the subways. Always late. Dirty. Noisy. Flying maniac kids dancing for dollars. Bad musicians. Endless panhandlers. And the so-called ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

Wildfire

Patrick Kuklinski

We weren't quite yet old enough for a high school reunion, and not quite close enough to become Facebook friends or follow each other on Twitter. And yet, here we were. Jack had been one of my best ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 1 min

The Identification of Bears

Betsy Cornelius

"Do you like Sunshine Bear?"

Becca scowls down at her white shirt emblazoned with a smiling bear—at the long, bony finger inches away from her skinny chest.

"It's Funshine Bear," she says. She ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 3 min

Four-Leaf Clover

Peter Wallace

The four-leaf clover should not have been there, caught in Esteban's hair. It was a surprise there was any clover at all. The cows had already been through twice that week, pulling at the remnants of ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Joy Romance Young Adult 4 min

Freefall

Angela Teagardner

The wind was sharper this close to the water. Hands trembling, Astrid hurried to zip her jacket before the ride operator checked her seatbelt. She wished her tremors had more to do with the chill in ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Modern Love 5 min

Perhaps Under Different Circumstances

Sonia Weiser

Anna knew the bridge was a mistake before she and Henry even got there. Maybe it was because he had said he thought it was strange for full grown adults to interrupt a conversation to swoon over an ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 3 min

Channel Five

Nathan Alling Long

"Are you scared?" I ask Dad over the phone.
"What do I have to be scared about?" he says. "We're locked in our rooms."
He's always been tough like that, stoic, but I wish I could see his face, hug ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Historical 2 min Mature Audience

Night Walk

Mountain Nose

I ignored him until he throttled down. That was not normal.

It was a pleasant night, but an hour after curfew. City lights from Saigon to the east turned the dark a velvety purple, and the sweet ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Modern Love Love & Loss 3 min Mature Audience

Moondust

Lysander Champion

The night before Jen touched down on Earth, I was holed up in Rachel's bedroom in Houston. We had both made a valiant, fruitless effort to sleep; now it was three in the morning. Sometime around one ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Nostalgia Portrait 2 min

Couch

Jared Levy

My dad came home from work and sat on the black leather couch in the living room. He always sat in the same spot. He always looked tired. Every night went the same: first work, then couch until the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Love & Loss 3 min

Brick Room

David Evan Krebs

Sarah feels bricked up, even though she's riding her bike. She feels caged, because of where she's riding her bike: to a coffee shop to meet an ex she's not sure she wants to meet. He called her to ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 5 min

A Stranger’s Time

Drew Kolenik

I've never been less than an hour early for my train. I don't know if it comes from a sense of heightened preparedness or an ongoing current of anxiety that doesn't even let me sleep in on weekends ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Sorrow 4 min

Alight

Lisa Beebe

We bought the land to build a house, even though we knew it would be years before we could afford to build anything. We thought of it as an investment in our future. The land gave us something to look ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Magical Realism 2 min

Tree Love

Kirti Bhadresa

Maria had never been in love. But when she first saw a tiny sprout push its way through the tile floor, she felt something tighten inside her belly. She sat in her father's wooden rocking chair, his ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life 1 min

Swimming Home

Kenneth Margolin

Twenty years ago, I took my daughter, Sara, to the ocean for her fourth birthday. She just learned to dog paddle, and proudly walked up to anyone in sight, saying, "I can swim." The sea was calm, so I ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Knox

Long Way Home

Counting on the Waves

Birds, Circling, Everywhere

I Ain't Your Mama

Waiting for Another Train

Wildfire

The Identification of Bears

Four-Leaf Clover

Freefall

Perhaps Under Different Circumstances

Channel Five

Night Walk

Moondust

Couch

Brick Room

A Stranger’s Time

Alight

Tree Love

Swimming Home