Honest Isak The door was opened by a tiny woman with curly hair tied up in a bun, which was pinned on the top of her head like a giant chestnut. She couldn’t have been any taller than 5’3”, but my eyes still came in a good two and a half inches under the tips […]
Fiction
Honest Isak
Twenty-three Crates from China
by Prudence Hemming
FOREWARD I was asked to report on the aftermath of the deceased’s life from observations made at the final viewing. The sections below list observations of the physical remains and excerpts from documents recorded at different times in her last days. The final section is based on actual events written in accordance with her wishes. […]
Resonance
by Alison Sanders
The plastic bed is cold against Tamiko’s calves, her butt, her shoulder blades. The monstrous contraption hums, as if hungry for her. She’s heard stories of people who freak out in these things; she holds in her hand, in fact, a panic button. The earnest young technician who handed it to her wears scrubs and […]
Elephant
by Chris Naff
Warning: This short story contains sensitive content related to gun violence that may be triggering for some readers. “Is it real?” When the alarm goes off one of the third graders in the back asks Mr. Davis the question Ellison is afraid to ask. “It’s real,” Mr. Davis says. “Remember, we treat it real […]
The Story of the God-Writer and Minotaur by Amjad Gholami Translated from the Kurdish by Himan Heidari
When the thread was severed, we were there, at that place which had been to me or maybe to you too as frightening and eerie as all other places. As such, I have the impression that I resemble the man who, on an inauspicious afternoon, gets into a taxi with a bearded man who keeps pushing him, “write about you and me,” but who instead notes,
I only write about people who you may or may not know in the future.
Papa’s Red Money Box
by Rashmi Agrawal
Our eyes would be fixed on the box, hoping to get a fleeting peek inside. Would its touch be steely? Or had smooth feel of those notes? We couldn’t imagine if it were heavy like Maa’s salt container or feathery like ghee’s.
The Tree
by Zhe Zhang
translated from the Chinese by Xiaoming Shan
What a place, nothing but for some bare rocks. A stark mountain, literally.
Turn Around
by Ariel Kay
Queen Maud Gulf, Nunavut, Canada April 28th, 38°F, wind: 15 m.p.h. “You’re the expert, Lydia,” Scott says as they stare out at the expanse of Arctic sea. Where there were supposed to be sleek sheets of ice, there’s now mostly slush. “What now?” Scott’s nose and cheeks are red, a bad mix of cold and […]
When the Bough Breaks
by Lesley Bannatyne
I am watching my daughter nursing the baby. She is incandescent, my daughter, like a Renaissance Madonna. Her skin is alabaster and her hair haloes in the sunlight that slips through the kitchen window and slides off the bones of her face. It’s the gorgeous hair some women get while pregnant—mine grew six inches during […]
Gin
by Kate Faigen
Mom and Dad are in the basement playing gin. “Your deal,” Dad says. Mom pours Tanqueray into one of the milk cups we used as children. “GIN,” she shouts, slamming it down.