By: John Smistad “Settle down, big guy!” The four-legged ball of enthusiasm had made at least a half-dozen attempts to leap onto his owner’s chest now. And the guy was standing. The guy has a name. William Kuntz. “Billy” for short….
By: Gerri Zimmerman Mars—2175 A.D. Abrasive Martian winds slam into the ancient Martian statue situated on top of the Face on Mars. Neither wind nor heat can damage this statue created by the Martians a long time ago. The statue,…
By: Will Jones Great smelling food made my mouth water. I kept my eyes closed for a little longer. The spices reminded me of holidays I had been on. The smell of the meat took me to barbecues we had had…
By: Niles Reddick After two cups of coffee, I went outside, opened the garage, plugged in my electric saw, and lugged the ladder to the Holly tree next to the house. In the three years we’d lived there, the tree…
By Thomas M. McDade The Dodge’s radio didn’t work but enough sightseeing on Route 1. Elsa’s Lodge looked like it should be in the Alps. The Holiday Inn close by struck me as classy. Maybe a Boston, or visiting player,…
By: Josephine Greenland Are they really going to swim here? Ellen thought as the Syrians strode into Torne River. She assumed they were Syrians by their black hair and beards, and the rapid Arabic they were speaking. They had to be…
By A.R. Hansen I had to lie at first and tell the producers I was about to turn 12 because they said 11 was too young to go on a national talk show with such a messed-up family. Except they…
By: Wendy Lee Klenetsky Even if all they had been after was great ratings during “sweeps week” on television, the “JERRY MARKS SHOW” couldn’t possibly have concocted such a program. After all, no one in their right mind would…
By: Lucille Bellucci Once upon a time…. My wanderings over a distant time begin with that phrase, a cipher that unlocks a landscape biding in the storehouse behind my eyes. It is almost always the same picture that unreels over what…
By: Hillard Morley The face grew red and bulging and awful. Jeremy watched the hands instead, lifted as though taking an oath, the palms exposed, signalling an explosion. He distanced himself, imagined the scene in a cartoon panel, spikes of red…