By: Jill Olson Clinking glasses intermingled with twitters of laughter. Bethany had put on a great spread for us to graze on, as we discussed this month’s book. The fire crackled, whispering its presence while coupled with the aroma of…
By: Ed Krizek After the episode everything was different. No one really knew what happened. I certainly didn’t. There was an explosion in the warehouse. I was in aisle 12B looking for a piece of a cystoscope when I heard…
By: Ram Govardhan Like most of us, Vedantam Rajagopalan is a friendly intender chap and, unlike most of us, too proud of his cerebral endowments. His Churchillian obsession with English and punctuation, particularly the Oxford comma, always baffled his New…
By: Steve Carr A giant oak tree, said to be over two hundred years old, stood alone in a field behind Ulysses Parnice’s property. The tree had been called Old Poor Boy for as long as anyone in the town…
By Gaither Stewart It happens, admittedly not often, in fact infrequently, but it happens that it snows here in the spring even though foreigners think our city is nearly tropical. Here at only fifty-two meters over sea level, at 41°53’30”…
By: Kaitlin Packer I woke with my pajamas wet against my shoulder blades and my hair soaked through at the base of my neck. Jumping out of bed, I opened my computer and squinted at the email that came through…
By: Guy Preston My friend Arthur bought a dog. In the beginning, things went well with his dog: they would spend time together and, over time, Arthur grew fond of his dog. They would go to the beach together and…
By Ryan Collins The Spring when Danny and Sarah decided to start a family was the same Spring the earth stalled and the seasons never changed again. No one realized this at first, of course. The winter was gray…
By: Sterling Warner “Did it happen again?” “Uh-huh! This time my heart beat faster, Gil, and I could swear I heard high pitched voices speaking in some foreign language, ordering me to do something.” “Sit down, Smithy, and hold my…
By: Erik Barca “Marcus, please stay the week. Dad needs you.” “He doesn’t want me around. I’ll need to rearrange my work. I can only stay through Wednesday, maybe.” “But I can’t take care of him until Saturday … Yes,…