Anna Smolek is on Dakota Street now, working toward Ninth. Leaves swirl at her ankles, children streak by, shouting—a cloud is coming. The sauerkraut air is being sent east, into Tenth.
The old woman progresses in slippers, pause following step. …
“Here in my hands, I hold a 32-inch tool of destruction.” Coach Arnie peeled the last stubborn piece of cellophane from the Tennessee Thumper and flicked it into the swirling infield breeze. Taking a slow, metered pace, he gripped opposite …
When Ryan got the opportunity to audition for the big metal band out in Los Angeles, we all fantasized about making it. He was our shot, our big red toe in the door. He would live out in California and tour …
When the order came to shut down, everyone at the company grabbed stacks of files and papers and walked out in groups of four or five, laughing uneasily at the unnerving novelty of it all. At the first Zoom meeting, …
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If I’m gonna trace it all the way back, I guess it started with a cigarette. Harmless enough. I was reluctant at first, my parents would kill me for sure, but then I remembered how sharp Brad Pitt looked in Fight Club…
A loud ring shatters my sleep, growing louder with each cycle like a police car racing up the street. I stagger to the living room, kicking a beer can out of my way. I snatch the telephone and hear a …
The child learned that a man was to be killed on Friday. His father read the headline from the newspaper, addressing the child’s mother, who was by the kettle. “Oh,” she said. Followed by a period of silence. Father shuffled …
“Harold, wake up. It’s almost time.”
“Huh? What?”
“It’s 1:30. 1:30 AM.”
“Why can’t they set the clocks back at 2:00 in the afternoon?” Harold painstakingly untangled his limbs, forcing himself to sit up on the couch. “It didn’t used …
New Orleans, Garden District. Magazine Street sits quiet on a lonely Tuesday night, the humid air thick enough to chew. A neon sign flickers green above the entrance to a two-story dive, Tommy Rouge’s, where inside, two patrons sit against …
Samantha Serpentini is an insufferable little warthog. Associate editor of the school’s monthly newsletter, vice president of the Youth Leadership Council, quintessential overachiever, class snitch, she sits, arms crossed, high in the bleachers and slowly shakes her head so everyone …