Category: Short Stories
-
The Piano – A Short Story
I have been around fur-ones all my life. They do not have fur on the tips of their fingers, but it is everywhere else. On some it is pale, touched but mostly unseen, and on others—the nose-ones mostly—it is an encapsulating seed, the vessel through which they experience the world. As you can see I…
-
At the Mall – A Short Story
Sharp elbows. Sharp like shark fins, serrated like old kitchen knives with wooden handles. A smell like skunk and burnt canola oil, something stuffed away and long hidden from sunlight. There is no overhead music but—velcro, children’s shoes, spilled fountain drinks left sticky on the tiles. Glass boxes filled with plastic cloth, on plastic people…
-
Backs on Grass – A Short Story
Where did we come from? I don’t mean life. That’s been documented already; the pale curtain of lightning; the dense seas—Venusian, black like boiled leather; the first spark that tethered us all to water. Roger Gray was the first one to record it on video. He won the Nobel Prize for it about a decade…
-
Osprey – A Short Story, Part 3 (Finale)
The next day Alexis told her parents. “It’s an osprey, I think,” she said at breakfast. “I looked it up online. They’re the only predatory bird that only eats fish.” She led them upstairs, out on the balcony, where they all stood hip-to-hip. “Look at that,” her mother said. The babies were alone again. “Aren’t…
-
Osprey – A Short Story, Part 2
Behind their house was a sprawling wetland. In the winter its green water came up to Alexis’s knees, but in the summer she walked through it in shorts and rubber boots and only got her ankles wet. Sometimes in her head she called it The Swamp Barrens, but that was only because her freshman roommate…
-
Osprey – A Short Story, Part 1
She didn’t like going for walks when it looked like it was going to rain. The rain itself didn’t bother her—Alexis kind of liked the cool droplets pinging against her forehead; maybe because being out in the rain made her feel like a little kid, or like a straight-laced intellectual led to freedom by some…
-
Premonition – A Short Story
“Don’t say that,” he said softly. “Why would you think that?” “It’s just this feeling, Brian. I just— I know I’m not going to make it past the weekend. I just know.” Her eyes closed, and her shoulders shook as she cried. She brushed away each tear as it rolled to her delicate nose. Soon…
-
Volando – A Short Story
“Ala,” her boyfriend said with his head turned away. “We need to go.” She was named after God. Or wings, according to her Spanish parents. “Uh… just another minute, Sam. Just…” Her hands were still drying, one resting on each leg. She curled them up like potato bugs. A leaf fell into the water…
-
The Figure Skater – A Short Story
Dina stood near the ice with her shoulders hunched over, noting the skater’s lithe jumps and pretty contortions. The rink felt colder than usual on her bare arms. She stumbled back into the lobby. Ignoring the spicy smell of pretzels and churros, she sat on a wooden bench near the entrance. A line of bodies blocked…
-
To Hear The Earth Speak – A Short Story
They told me I was deaf, but I didn’t believe them. The music was always there. Always strongest at the sunrise, bending the ancient colors of the sky until they were inside me. I knew sound as I saw it. The yellow sap of cedar trees sang directly into me, gave all the…
All The Winds Of The World 