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Under the Porch
by Dinah Cox My next-door neighbor—Charlotte was her name—had four kids, five Labrador retrievers of various colors, and a small income she earned exclusively by delivering the morning newspaper in our neighborhood. She must have collected child support, too, though she never said anything about an ex-husband. In the afternoons, she listened to the police…
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Communion
by Madeline Vosch I had gone to the café just to get out of the house. My apartment was carpeted, and when the sun hit at midday, the space got small and uninhabitable. I had just taken a shower, my hair leaving wet patches on my shirt. I was always a little bit of a…
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Beach Reads
by Corey Farrenkopf Raphael leaves a tattered copy of Dracula in a nook behind the Smiths’ toilet paper rack. The week before, he left The Shining in the Hamiltons’ pool house. He placed his copy of Cthulhu tales in the top dresser drawer of Mrs. Sherman’s wardrobe, beneath lilac lingerie. Raphael cleans vacationers’ homes. Their…
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Fish Girls
by Meghan Callahan It’s a Wednesday night and we’re all in the living room except for Natalie, who is making popcorn over at the microwave. The TV broke last week because of a power surge or something, and the landlord has promised that maintenance is sending someone to repair it, but they’ve been promising to…
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The Hollow
by Carlea Holl-Jensen I don’t remember anything from that summer except the hollow—not the Fourth of July beach party, or our trip to the lighthouse. There are pictures, I know: you and me in our bathing suits and shorts, blinking into the camera while behind us someone sets off fireworks that don’t show up against…
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Last Known Tomorrow
by Larry J. Wormington Your assimilation begins at the Military Enlistment Processing Station, or MEPS. If military service were a lobotomy, MEPS would be the surgical prep area. Upon arrival, you’re stripped to your skivvies and interrogated by the most highly trained and experienced medical professionals indentured servitude can buy. Don’t answer truthfully any questions…
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Yoro Speak
by Matt Hall I. When the aliens arrived, they came with jobs. Offers for jobs, at least. Earth’s economy had really taken a nosedive those last few decades and because many people had all but given up, the aliens, who looked very human-like beneath those clunky helmets of theirs, were heralded as the Great New Hope…
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Periphery
by Ross Gormley The boy is walking along his usual path to school when he comes upon the small pond, a perfect circle of water, no more than five feet in diameter. Gravel lines its sides. Stones in the center look like tiny black icebergs. Hundreds of tadpoles swim between them. The boy’s shadow alarms…
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Such a Good Man
by Dustin M. Hoffman They told Eggy they’d be calling the cops soon if their missing kid didn’t appear in the next ten minutes. Eggy knew their type, fussy helicopter parents, the rich kind raised on fistfuls of pills and internet, who could afford to be chronically anxious about terrorism and plastic straws in the…
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Flight
by Laura Hartenberger Six hours after my sister’s plane departed from Tokyo and three hours from its scheduled arrival in Vancouver, oxygen masks dropped from overhead. It was just before sunrise and the cabin was quiet and dark. My sister was asleep, of course. She was proud of her ability to sleep on planes,…
