Fiction
Ordinary Terrible Things
Clare awoke to a tiny clink, a bit of background noise that seemed now oddly out of place. Had it come from the kitchen? Two glasses slipping together in the dish drain? For a long while she lay terrified and … Continue reading
Tommy’s Rats: The Old Woman Tries to Make Herself Useful
The old joke about Tommy was she was a social scientist without the social. Now she’s gone feral. She watches herself with detached interest, as though she were a subject in one of the studies she used to quantify. In … Continue reading
Faked Deaths in My Family
(I) I cradled the dead snake’s slack, dark line, smashed into a double kink, and cried. Nana had found him squirming over the handle of the laundry room door, screamed, then slammed him into the jamb, breaking his neck—but since … Continue reading
A List of Names for Our First Born Child
[Richard] How long should a Jew be dead before you name your child after him? My mother thumbs through The Big Book of Baby Names, recently dusted. Hunting for free supplies, I found the book boxed up, in the back-most … Continue reading
Driving Blind
JT’s sitting at a dark corner table in Carla’s and raises his arm to look at his wrist and make a point on my running late. The watch’s illumination lights the stubble on his face in a tight glow, and … Continue reading
A Daring Undertaking
Sergeant Erastus Snow, United States Army Camel Corps, Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory, to the Honorable Jefferson Davis, Secretary, United States Department of War, Sept. 15th 1856. Let me first inform you of the caravan of thirteen camels and dromedaries … Continue reading