Field Notes for Echoes

Erika KielsgardNovember 18, 2020

The second ambulance and I almost touched. Two weeks earlier, I was the one inside, but no one was there. I was reading Villon before I received the news. Tr...

Fiction0 Comments

Who Cares What Psychiatrists Write on Walls?

Steve GergleyNovember 12, 2020

Who cares what psychiatrists write on walls? is the answer I get, but it has nothing to do with my question. This is how things have been going ever since Trevo...

Fiction0 Comments

If on a Winter’s Night

Shelby HinteNovember 11, 2020

If on a winter’s night a writer sits down in a darkened room with only the glow of a desk lamp to guide them, they may find themselves writing about the thing t...

Fiction0 Comments

Heartbeat in a Jar

Elizabeth MullerNovember 7, 2020

I didn't mean to give the antique bookseller my heartbeat. It simply came out of me one day, an electric spark, and it was his.   I went to the rare ...

Fiction0 Comments

The Helicopter Man

Kevin SampsellNovember 5, 2020

I heard the helicopter above my home. The noise lasted for several minutes as I lay in the bathtub. It got louder and louder as if the helicopter were going to ...

Fiction0 Comments

Seasonal End Times Depression

Kelsi LongNovember 4, 2020

I’m shedding. Skin. There’s scabby flakes accumulating in all of the carpets. And in my sheets. And in the bathroom rugs. To be honest it’s a nightmare for derm...

Fiction0 Comments

It’s When You Confuse The Most Horrific Thing In The World For The Most Beautiful Thing In The World

K ChiucarelloOctober 27, 2020

Saturday I drove out to the lake. Or at least someone told me it was a lake. The thing I was prepared to swim was lake-size.  When I had arrived, it turned out ...

Fiction0 Comments

The Pong Paddles Got Divorced

Michelle DrozdickOctober 22, 2020

Left Pong Paddle stared across the parking lot through the windshield of its ‘13 Toyota Corolla, its iced coffee (almond milk, no sugar) momentarily forgotten. ...

Fiction0 Comments

Justice

Mark JohnsonOctober 21, 2020

The whole thing, the whole trajectory, changed when I realized I had left all my cash in Des Moines. Most of the cash had come from selling off the few things m...

Fiction0 Comments

Five Stars

Elliot HarperOctober 20, 2020

I fiddle with the lock. The key always jams. I have no idea why, but every time I try to get inside our mailbox, I have the same trouble. I guess I could tell R...

Fiction0 Comments

PIT BULL

Ross McMeekinOctober 19, 2020

Christmas eve, Pete Summers was about to climb down the ladder from the roof of Clara Lessing’s home when a large brown pit bull came running down the driveway ...

Fiction1 Comment

A CONDITION OF BODY AND MIND

Jack Sanderson ThwaiteOctober 15, 2020

You should get some sleep, but instead, you're on your laptop in bed looking at a photo of a beautiful tree. The background is nicely out of focus and maybe the...

Fiction0 Comments

DANCING WITH ETTA

Ai JiangOctober 15, 2020

You would think that something attached to threads moves in a jerky manner that resembles Pinocchio's clumsy walk, but her movements are smooth and graceful, wh...

Fiction0 Comments

The Other People

Pascale PotvinOctober 14, 2020

The screams upstairs were distinctly Ivory. “Ew- Dad! Kill it! Kill it!” she cried. “Where is it?” August returned, clunky sigh accompanying. “The bathroo...

Fiction0 Comments

MERMAIDS IN THE BALLROOM

Sam GrieveOctober 12, 2020

“To be a mermaid you have to be able to swim. Or at least float with grace,” said Mr. Beekman. Of all the girls, only three of us—Millie, Francie, and I—felt...

Fiction0 Comments

You Be Illin’

Richard DaubOctober 12, 2020

With the money he'd made from his 23-house Newsday delivery route, Carl had purchased a TV, a VCR, a $400 Centurion Accordo Tour de France Limited Edition twelv...

Fiction0 Comments

Elias and the Wolf

Chelsea ThorntonOctober 8, 2020

The wolf had come for him. Come to devour him, swallow him whole until he was more beast than man, his flesh turned to fur. He knew the beast well enough to fea...

Fiction0 Comments

Between the Lines

Eric LawsonOctober 7, 2020

After a myriad of meandering meanwhiles, the crux of modern civilization came sharply into focus: lines. More specifically, what lines are, what they can and ca...

Fiction0 Comments

Beguilers

Mackenzie SinghSeptember 30, 2020

The specialist is coming to see me today. I’m told the first session will be a consultation. If I “cooperate” she can do for me what she did for a woman in Tall...

Fiction2 Comments

the tattoo appointment

Olivia BraleySeptember 21, 2020

you were supposed to be doing things with your life. you were supposed to have gotten that big girl dc job. you were supposed to be home a month ago. you are in...

Fiction0 Comments

Highlander

Alexandra KesslerSeptember 10, 2020

It’s only us out here. Going fast on the dark road. Clare always takes the back way. Her Shortcuts. She’s my Best Friend. Her fingers on the steering wheel, min...

Fiction0 Comments

Coyote

Alexandrine OgundimuSeptember 5, 2020

Saint never had a lot of luck, but then again, who does? Mall food court. She was asking this manager for a job, a man with an eyebrow ring and a University ...

Fiction0 Comments

My Dental Hygienist is a Vampire

Sara DobbieSeptember 3, 2020

I’m sitting in the vinyl chair, reclined so far that I’m looking up at her. She bends over me, so close I can see a faint blue vein feathering across her forehe...

Fiction0 Comments

A Not-So-Irish Exit

Dylan MartinAugust 26, 2020

It’s 10 o’clock and the party’s barely even started, but every minute of this conversation feels like another hour, and I fear that if I don’t get out of here s...

Fiction0 Comments

Mary has been quitting her job.

Michael ColbertAugust 24, 2020

Mary has been quitting her job, but she can’t get to the office today because of the alligator out the door. She moved into this apartment over the weekend and ...

Fiction0 Comments

Buying Dr. Phil’s House

Erik KennedyAugust 19, 2020

Friends are the worst.   After I won the largest Mega Millions jackpot in history, many of my well-wishers understandably asked me what I intended to...

Fiction0 Comments

The Day Before Your Top Surgery Fundraising Campaign Fails

H Kapp-KloteAugust 16, 2020

The day before his top surgery online fundraising campaign fails, Ivan wakes up feeling just fine. He didn’t check his fundraising page, though he had fallen...

Fiction1 Comment

Pizza Friday

Davon LoebAugust 14, 2020

Later they said this is where it started, when he became a bad kid; but really, he was just pissed his square pizza was cold and that it flopped between his han...

FictionFlash Fiction0 Comments

Day Job

Mila JaroniecAugust 8, 2020

I opened the closet. What would he like? Male professional, said the ad, seeking date with discreet, easy-going woman for fun, friendship, and more. The last on...

Fiction0 Comments

Outside the Gumdrop Factory

Neeraj KumarAugust 5, 2020

I woke up on Saturday morning. Grayish light filtered in from the crack in the window; more than enough to illuminate the sparse bedroom: a 5-drawer dresser top...

Fiction2 Comments