Paleontology by Lydia Copeland Gwyn We flipped through the section on extinct forms. My sister Louise wanted to see the Saber-Toothed Tiger and the American Mastodon. She wanted to draw their tusks in the black sketch book that came in her Easter basket. Every...
How To Disappear by Julie Morin The bus charged along a solitary stretch of cracking asphalt that cut through the buff Nebraska plain. It was almost winter, the wind whipping and dry, and still no snow. Kylie looked out the window at the barren landscape, watching the...
Triptych by Joan Wilking Benjamin Bullard IV (still known as Benji to his family and friends) has boiled his life down to a series of lists. They were his last girlfriend’s idea. “Focus. Focus. Focus.” Karleen said. “Lists saved my life.” All of her suggestions about...
King and Queen by Melissa Gutierrez When she finally calls I have just had a new dishwasher installed, just shaken the Sears man’s thickened hand and shown him out the door. I am still watching him through the blinds as he gets inside his painted van when the phone...
What’s Confusing by Willie Fitzgerald In the aisle with canned vegetables, pickles, tomatoes, and pasta sauce, they reached their mutual breaking point. I don’t understand, she said. I don’t understand why you would feel that way about what I said. I didn’t say...
Excerpt from King of Joy by Richard Chiem Someone hands Corvus a Polaroid-it’s a photo of herself she doesn’t recognize-and the boy who gives it to her is the chubbiest at the party. The photo feels like a gift from a nightmare, something she should not be holding,...
