Too Late [story] by Dani Sandal

Oh it had all been so tragic. The way they sat there in the pews with their grandparents, patient and lady-like. Their fannies going numb. Olive in her 3-D glasses and blown-out overalls; Prue in her short skirt and glossy white Go-Go boots. Goobers melting in their pockets. Olive, touching Prue’s boots every chance she …

Miniatures [story] by Lee Upton

I would turn thirty-five in another month and the class was at a community college and so I thought I wouldn’t be the oldest, given that it was a night class, but everyone was so young and serious already. Years ago when I was those students’ age I took a course in decoupage at this …

Iodinical [story] by KT Browne

Iodine skips the liquid phase on its way to a gas; it streaks from whole to multitudes then, without a fluid bridge between. At the moment of its boil, iodine mists oddly purple. Thereafter, its particles thin and wisp and stand displaced amongst airspace, vaporous and otherwise invisible apart from the stark contours of every …

Running Up that Hill [story] by Bill GIllard

He wanted to be the first one up the hill, just this once, after all those years of second place in every race and every game, but the darkness of the woods slowed him down. He tripped over a fallen branch, and thought, you don’t have to be swimming in the middle of the lake …

A Death in Venice [story] by Jon Sindell

The first part of summer we three males of three generations spent solely on the sand, for the churning white surf was straight out of Scrap’s nightmares. In its own way, the sand was out of his real nightmares, for quicksand was one of many natural terrors that still haunted the mother-abandoned seven-year-old’s dreams—along with …

Gently (With Tablespoons) [story] by Mark Wisniewski

He walked into the hardware store realizing that he hadn’t been in a hardware store in years, maybe since childhood, and that the smell of bird seed and fertilizer reminded him of his older brother Zach. A year earlier he’d rarely thought about Zach, but now that he knew Zach’s story he often imagined the …

The Empty Nest [story] by Zelda Lockhart

I am a woman who considers herself careful with relationships, but had not considered until recently in my life that careful was an excuse for reclusive. On weekends, I walked the distance downhill to the rickety weather worn shed, resisting the sharp cold. My wheelbarrow crunched over snow, and I hummed, because I knew that …

Mystery Woman [story] by Walter Cummins

Even through the thick doors Jerry Pohl could hear pounding music and whoops from inside the student center pub. His instinct was to turn and head back to the dorm, but Cheryl had said she would be there, a casual remark that he knew was an invitation. They had started talking in the hallway before …

Freezer Case [story] by Anne Colwell

Hungry Man Salisbury Steak had been his favorite frozen dinner since he was a kid and his mother let the family eat frozen dinners on Friday nights on the folding snack tables while they watched TV. She called it “an indoor picnic” and they would sit together and watch the Brady Bunch and then the …

It’s Not as Bad as It Was [story] by Dave Newman

Her boyfriend called from a crack house in the Hill District and said, “Did you get my note about your grandfather dying?” He said, “I think I put it on the fridge. I don’t know. Did we talk about this? I’m not as high as I sound.” Louise said, “Shane, slow down.” Shane said, “I …

Winter Palace (story) by Rosalie Morales Kearns

Her husband was the center of attention, talking, telling jokes, a tight knot of people gathered round. Lourdes edged past, chose a table at the far end of the reception room. Not much of a view out the windows, but at least a glimpse of water on the horizon, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. …

Dreams of Distant Lives (story) by Lee K. Abbott

The other victim the summer my wife left me was my dreamlife, which, like a mirage, dried up completely the closer we came to the absolute end of us. In the fourteen years we were married, I had been a ferocious dreamer, drawing all I knew or feared or loved about the waking world into …

Theo at 3 (story) by Maureen O'Brien

At three in the morning, Theo longed to hear water running over rocks. He had been on Ward 57 for seven months, but today he was finally getting his legs. As he watched the second hand go around the big clock at the end of his bed, he pressed the button and rose up at …

Outer Reef (story) by Jeff Freiert

North Shore, Oahu Courtney had to admit, grasping the tow rope with both hands, knuckles white on the handle, admiring the foamy white wake of the jet ski in front of him, imagining the size of the swell they were speeding into, the whole thing felt a bit mythic. Here he was being towed by …

The Death of an Astronaut (story) by Tuere T.S. Ganges

I witnessed the death of an astronaut in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The sky was as deep, dark, and blue as the ocean it reflected with scattered stars that looked like twinkling jacks careless cherubs left outside. I clutched a 24-pack of soft white toilet paper, looking for my car, when a little brown-skin boy …

The Men Who Chase Storms (story) by Daniel Romo

They flew kites in the rain and dared lightning to strike. Small hands wielding string like daredevil virtuosos. Children who taunted the sky as if their parents would approve. They began as boys who required more than the rush of marbles colliding; never content with the surge of toilet-papering the town. Their parents were cloudless-blue-sky-sunny …

Fences (story) by Casey Murphy

“Have you ever run so fast it’s like you left your past behind?” The sun was sinking low behind the trees as Renee and Frank stared through the wire mesh fence out over the hills beyond. Renee’s fingers were laced through the holes in the fence, while Frank’s were stuffed in his pockets. He wanted …