Fiction
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Random, Rain
Written by Joel Alas “Will God remember you after you’ve taken your last breath…!?” he cried out, “Will He…!?” Under the faint streetlamp light, he searched for any eyes that dare look back into his. My eyes crossed his unexpectedly for a moment after he whirled around from about ten feet in front of me,…
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Red Wine, Gold Cake
Written by Allyson Baker My mother baked a cake for my seventeenth birthday. I remember it well because it was the first time that I had eaten gold. I had asked for months to try a gold flake from her bakery, but she always refused. “Gluttonous bastards” was the phrase that she used to describe…
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Thinking of a Place
Written by Peng Ngin Jessica rolled down the window of the taxi. The air felt like a summer night in Philadelphia where she is from: warm, languid, still. The difference on this quiet road outside a coastal town facing the South China Sea was the scent—of perfumed blossoms mixed with rotting organic matter. She tried…
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De mortuis nil nisi bonum by Yeldar Zurgenov
De mortuis nil nisi bonum1 «The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching». Assyrian Tablet from 2,800 BC2 It was a sunny day in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Kids…
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The Hole by Deanna Anderson
The hole has people in it, in boxes. Glass boxes. They do not see you, but you see them. They are doing things. Moving around; doing different activities. You can watch them as long as you want – they are so close. You are underground. A woman named Francis leads you around tunnels, wearing scrubs.…
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One Item Too Many by Sarah Johnson
One day at home, I discovered cash missing, sighed, and thought, “Well, now I have to end this.” It was one more item than I could tolerate on the list of things you did to hurt me. A list that when tallied, added up to kicking you out of the apartment. Your emotional apologies couldn’t…
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Images by Catherine Chang
Green, the color of the train was green, dark green. In a dream, the green is there. A flood of green is in the dream, a flood of dark green, a dark and perplexing and greedy green. The dream is unexpected, but not entirely frightening. The flood of green in the dream is all I…
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Redneck Daiquiri by Christopher Williams
On summer days you could find Stella Antoinetti panhandling in front of 7-11 for beer and smokes. She wore a dozen or so jangly bracelets on each forearm and sang to herself to pass the time. Sometimes, if the song was coming out just right and she was coming up on her favorite part, she…
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It Happened in Summer by Ron Chapman
“Mel. Mel. Melody. Wake up. Wake up!” Jo tapped Mel’s leg with an insistence that made her want to boot him out of bed and into next week. Then she remembered she loved him. “What the fuck, Jo? Damn. I was dreaming.” “What were you dreaming about.” “I don’t … I can’t remember. Damn.” “Sorry.” …
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Gravediggers by Anna Nicole Torres
A lantern bobbed in the fog enshrouding St. Joseph’s Cemetery. The chilled air was thick with the smell of rain and rot and in the gloom of near-dawn headstones emerged from the mist as jagged, crumbling gray isles overridden with moss. Two men, disparate in height and expression, plodded across the soggy grounds with shovels…
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