Category: Fiction

This was his fifth day working on the front line of the Colorado wildfire; the smoke and heat tearing through his chest had begun to wear on him. He coughed as he reached for his bandanna, which had slid down his face and was no longer covering his nos … Continue Reading

A shoe hung from the gutter. Caught by its white laces, the shoe didn’t move. It was like a rabbit held by the ears. The woman didn’t know how it got onto the roof of her house. It hadn’t been there yesterday. She was sure of it. It certainly wasn’t he … Continue Reading

Grandma placed her tiny, gnarled hand on my face. Her skin was soft and crinkly like tissue paper as she rubbed my cheek. She looked at me with a familiar sweetness that slackened my rigid posture. Even as my 6-foot frame dwarfed her petite body, I was … Continue Reading

The boy is burning in the front seat of the pickup. The sun feels too close to the earth, and the heat rises like gasoline fumes from the rust-colored hood—the kind of heat that keeps the birds from singing and makes the gun dogs dig ditches in the yar … Continue Reading

Equis swore sharply under their breath as their shoe caught on some sharp bit of metal twisting from the floor, scuffing the leather off their boots and knocking them off balance. “You okay?” Yi called back from the entrance of the old hallway. “Peachy … Continue Reading

On Monday, December 29th, the geese were suddenly gone. I know it shouldn’t be a surprise. Geese are supposed to migrate, but it was December, and this particular flock of Canada geese had decided to stay in the city’s park all year long. I don’t know … Continue Reading

[OLD MAN, SON I and SON II are gathered in a kitchen, which is sparsely decorated and drab. In the middle of the room is a small kitchen table with three chairs, and in the corner, a grey refrigerator and a white stove. There is one window over the sin … Continue Reading

“I need a good book.” Mary Jane Russell stared at the graying part at the top of her mother’s head, a dull line between the tightly permed blonde curls on the rest of her head. They were in Betty Russell’s dining room having their Friday night tuna, eg … Continue Reading

Cool air wakes her abruptly. The neck of her oversized cotton nightgown has fallen, revealing a mass on her chest that protrudes like an awkward third breast. She is hardly aware of it but for a familiar lethargy that lingers within her. She looks down … Continue Reading

Mid November in the January Hills, hunting ends at sundown. Shotgun season for deer wouldn’t begin for another two weeks, the shortest days and darkest nights of early December. Valerie and Jim drove their mismatched, rowdy pack of dogs into the hills … Continue Reading

My grandmother had a Bakelite Philco radio, model 48-250, brown with gold numerals on the dial. Its five tubes received the AM band and operated on 115 volts. I remember little about her, just that she wore black dresses with small white polka dots, pu … Continue Reading

I am perhaps the only professional artist to ever be hired for a job at a scientific research firm. The offer came in the form of an email from my high school friend Damaris. “I need my right brain,” she’d written as the subject line. That was our high … Continue Reading