By: Divya Dubey The dog had to be put to sleep. Since Sunday the thought had been revolving in Simran’s mind, making it impossible for her to focus her attention fully on any task. As she began to wipe…
By: Eric G. Müller Stacie looked out the airplane window. The last time she was in Cancun she got knocked up. That was fifteen years ago. An abortion, a string of boyfriends and a failed marriage lay between. Now she was…
By: Joshua Medsker Peter Loew dug his hands furiously into the hard clay. “Come on, you rotten son of a bitch.” Swearing at the clay helped him get on top of it and make it do his bidding. He…
By: Ikwuagwu Osita Victor The last fisherman stared at me suspiciously before walking, languidly, away with his fishing paraphernalia. I wondered what was going on in his mind. Perhaps he was thinking another youngster has gone bananas, or that…
By: DC Foster Scar tissue mottled the old man’s hands, the thinner the lighter; it ran like Desert Storm camouflage from his wrists into his fingers toward the jaundiced nails that tipped each of his ten digits. No, nine digits. His…
By: Richard D. Hartwell It must have been about 1955 or ‘56 when I was first a procurer for my cousin Jocelyn. I don’t recall whose idea it was to sell from door to door, but it fell to me…
By: W. Jack Savage I woke up, having planned to go in a little late and had told my employer so the night before. My son’s birthday was coming up and I knew what he wanted. It was a T-shirt…
By: Lee Oleson Sylvia had a face too thin, eyes sunk deep, shoulders and body uncomfortably narrow, dark hair, and a neck a little too long, jumbled into what’s sometimes called unconventional beauty. She had made her way through life…
By: Erin F. Robinson It was his last night playing guitar at the tango salon as a bachelor. His band mates lined up at the bar, and as Flor poured them each a glass of gin, she raised the last glass…
By: John Michael Flynn Christmas was a week away when Tillman Grossklag found Claudia Ruden face down in vomit on the floor of her Manhattan apartment. Tillman was the only person Claudia had entrusted with a key. Tillman removed the…