Category: fiction
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Used car lot shepherd
Before smart devices most lads aspired to astronaut or president. Sister Mary Black an’ Decker prayed that I would grow into a priest. She was a bit strange. I loved her. With her right sleeve rolled and ruler poised, her bicep damselfly tattoo smiled. Neighborhood pals and I pooled our money buying old Mercury. Didn’t…
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Heart of Glass
When we look in the mirror, what do we see? Do we see the fragile heart of someone, on the verge of breaking? Do we see all their inner thoughts, their tireless demons, the wounds of their youth? No. We see only their surface. The small flaws on their chin, the light flushing of their…
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Big Stick
Golden carambola – star fruit, appropriately enough – thrive in my southern uplands, their sweet flesh swelling with anti-oxidants for my colonists. Higher grow the Yangmei trees, their scarlet fruit bursting with healthful juice. Fields of teff spread across the plains, swirling into bright green waves when caressed by winds from the southern…
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Jacobi Fuji
The Simmons public library was a melting pot of the haves and have-nots, a mixture of homeless people and the wealthy older residents of the nearby neighborhood. This was no surprise to the woman sitting in the plush red armchair. Her hair pulled into a ponytail so tight, it might tear off her…
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For the Win
I scroll through new names for the band, a list eight entries long on the notes app on my phone. Almost Roses. Athens Attic. Saturday’s Missing Pages. My head is bowed like I’m praying, but really I’m just avoiding eye contact with Tyler. “I don’t want you back,” I say, finally looking up.…
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These Artists
1. Flowing. You are a pedestrian: you are in enforced imprisonment. This is the phantom you are plagued by. You hear whispers and shouts permeated around the sidewalk that you try to float by in loose motions; sometimes songs bubbled under skin, common sense suggests this resonated in privacy. Like say some kind-a…
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Antares’ Benediction
Reeves loved Antares, seven hundred times the size of our sun, the giant red star in the constellation Scorpius. Five hundred and fifty light years away sounds like a lot but only when constrained by gravity. The distance shrinks to nothing when freed by death, the opposite of gravity, serving as a celestial…
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6424 Avenue Z
Before she died, Grandma made me promise that I’d take care of her house. How could I say no? She was the only person in this whole world who didn’t look at me and see a good for nothing loser. Mama didn’t even tell me who my daddy was before she up and…
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The Testament of Algorithms
It had been a long year – not a good year, but a long one. When it was finally over, when the last bottle of cheap wine was upturned in the ice bucket, when the last guest left, leaving a wreck of their small apartment, Glen and Glenda turned to each other. The question…
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Yellowjacket Kid
We went around the cabin and each kid had to say something about himself. Uttie, our counselor, talked about the camp and meals and bedtime and everything. He had to answer a lot of questions because, even though our parents had only just left, already a kid had got hurt in a really awful…
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For All One Knows
A man sees an old woman up ahead of him on the side of a desolate path. He is surprised to come across her, as he hasn’t seen anyone for days. By the looks of it, neither has she. She is leaning up against a tree, in the small midday shade, and even though she…
