I was five days overdue. “Go fetch the washing off the line,” Mom said, “let’s see if that gets things started.” So I grunted down over my belly, grabbed the laundry basket, and lumbered through the yard in bare feet. I glanced back. Mom was watching my slow progress from the back step, […]
With the summer solstice sun melting into the horizon, Ulrike hits the gas pedal and screeches out of Glendale along the I-5 to East Hollywood, where she parks in front of a Walgreens boasting a “now with extended hours” sign. With trembling…paws, she adjusts the rearview mirror to check her reflection. Hair—coarse and
I saved the world once. Twice, if you count that time in Budapest. But that was back in my glory days with The Agency. Back when secrets were stored on microfiche, and guys like me could do our job with a poker face and a whole lotta badass. When
After four long hours of descent, the deep-water submersible Goby reoriented to glide along the ocean floor. I prepared for another lonely journey, with grief my only companion. I clicked the LEDs on full. Their bleached glare pushed against sulfurous clouds. Gripping the stick, I leaned forward, straining to see.
Crawling Toward the Light Read More »
This is how they tell it, those childless people who long for a child. The forest witch keeps a mossy glade, and it is full of healthy babies. You can pick one up and keep it to care for as your own. Tanet was not there to get one of the
On the beach, in the darkness, two men handed out life jackets. They gave one of the men in our group instructions on how to turn the engine on. Then they disappeared. Others pulled the dingy out into the water, and we climbed in, waiting for the motor to start. It
Not Drowning but Waving Read More »
Héng. Horizontal, left to right. The brush travels slowly across the parchment. Sseong-hi watches the black ink bleeding from the line he has painted on the yellowed page. It spreads along the grain, but he holds the brush steady from start to finish.
The End, in Five Strokes Read More »
Cold winds blow from the north and lift the albatross high over the bay. From below, the cracking of breaking wood follows loud booms of cannon blasts. A great battle is taking place in a war that has been waged for years. Flames erupt from some of the ships, and giant
The Last Albatross of Greywater Read More »
Kat sleeps with the data. Old school, USB, under the Mouse pillow. Caught the methane release in real time, live, last night, by chance. Was messing around in her former company’s servers, suspecting they had an imperceptible delay on a few key sensors. Less than a second,
A flipped boat, he clings to the metal bench seat slick with mossy water, his feet spasming in the unknown depths below him. Because at sixteen, there’s something fucked up about not knowing how to float or tread water. He had skipped swimming lessons because he couldn’t imagine a world where he wouldn’t know how
Each Death Gets Us Closer Read More »
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