Category: Fiction

  • Beguiled by Hilary Ayshford

    Beguiled by Hilary Ayshford

    We wanted to be gypsies, the raggle-taggle vagabonds of folksongs and fairy tales. We wanted to meander through the countryside in brightly painted wooden caravans on wheels, pulled by thickset ponies with shaggy coats and fringed feet, to sleep under the stars and cook food on an open fire, lit by lanterns glimmering in the…

  • Where by Glen Pourciau

    Where by Glen Pourciau

    Yesterday, I think it was, I had a setback. I don’t have a sequence of events, before or after, but I sort of woke up midafternoon at the wheel of my car in a city forty miles west of our house. I didn’t remember driving there and as far as I know, I had no…

  • Things That Count by Beth Sherman

    Things That Count by Beth Sherman

    It’s been four hours and you’re still sitting in the green bucket chairs, not reading the array of People magazines on the table, as the wall clock barely ticks forward and Ryan sits next to you playing Fruit Ninja on his phone, using his left hand because the right one got hit with a line…

  • Clothesline Murmurs by Cheryl Rebello

    Clothesline Murmurs by Cheryl Rebello

    Mid-summer: If the clothes drying on the nylon ropes under their window have any veracity to convey, and they do, the man whose apartment window is directly opposite mine wears a lot of corduroys. It appears he owns a lot of solid, full-sleeve shirts to go with them. His wife, on the other hand, favours…

  • Sanctuary by Ali Rowland

    Sanctuary by Ali Rowland

    It’s so cold here. If I was at home I’d have to switch the heating on. She’d be calling me, nagging me, summoning me, until I did it, and made her a hot water bottle too while the house warmed up. She can’t stand the cold. She can’t stand any discomfort. And it’s my job…

  • Before the Storm by Paul Hilding

    Before the Storm by Paul Hilding

    The dogs and I don’t go as far as we used to. Instead of the half-mile jog to the mailboxes at the top of the road or sometimes to the river another half-mile beyond, it is all Cabo can do to limp alongside me for a few hundred yards. Loma stays close in the alfalfa…

  • Blanket by Melissa Llanes Brownlee

    Blanket by Melissa Llanes Brownlee

    Don’t let me be lonely she says, her arms cuddling her yellow blanket, her legs splayed underneath, painted toes peeking out, because it’s too hot to have a blanket, but she refuses to be without it, give me a hug she begs, her nails scratching the holey patches she’s made over the years, a comforting…

  • Grandma Has Magical Powers by Wayne Fitzgerald McCray

    Grandma Has Magical Powers by Wayne Fitzgerald McCray

    “But I have another question?” Mack was again told to take his butt outside. To go take advantage of the beautiful day. Go get some fresh air. Go play. Go do something. She didn’t care where or what. Just as long as it wasn’t there. She needed a break from him. And at some point,…

  • A Bit of the Night by Shome Dasgupta

    A Bit of the Night by Shome Dasgupta

    A rocking in the wind – rattled windows and a tremor. From night came a turbulence so maddening that he closed his eyes and covered his ears. Maybe, if he shouted, the deafening sounds – its frightening clash would subside. So. He shouted, sitting on the kitchen floor with his legs crossed. The wood of…

  • By the Radio by Letitia Payne

    By the Radio by Letitia Payne

    She hesitates before she places the phone to her ear. Always one to text or email but rarely one to call. He knew this well but rings anyway. She squeezes her eyes shut, and flecks of colour erupt across the backs of her eyelids.