Electricity
Jamie leans on a power pole. Rusted staples twice her age prickle her aching back. She’s jolted by lingering love for hundreds of lost cats.
View ArticleA New Wrinkle
In the mirror, Liv saw a crinkled, aging woman. Nathan said he saw a clever brow, curious eyes, and a kaleidoscopic face. He wasn’t lying.
View ArticleLong Story
Vivian had an old oak cut down. The doves protested. She put up a feeder. It brought rats. She put out poison. That’s what killed the cat.
View ArticleThe Wee Hours
Jackie worked the night shift in a diner. Partiers came and went by 3am. Truckers showed up at 5am. 4am meant dishes and blue waking dreams.
View ArticleSporting a Trilby
The man said her trilby looked silly on a woman. Guys usually stared at her wheelchair, not her hat. She smiled. He grinned. It was a start.
View Article19th and Mississippi
A young couple stops at the corner, gazing at the San Francisco skyline. Ellen and Bill kissed at that corner. This couple snaps a picture.
View ArticleIn the Dark
The streetlight often blinked when Lucy passed beneath it. She made wild kinetic energy. One night she stopped a switchblade with a stare.
View ArticleFingerpaint
Bette woke just as sunset blackened the desert sky. Then she dipped her hands in bright acrylics to fingerpaint red-gold truth by moonlight.
View ArticleHush
Alicia prayed aloud while doing chores. Bill, who didn’t believe, found this annoying. One day, Alicia stopped. After a week, Bill started.
View ArticleBeing Art
She wanted the languid serenity of a Gauguin, but Tia knew she was a complex Picasso: when young, a sketch; by 60, a canvas bold with color.
View ArticleLittle Mutt
For a year he had balls and no name. Then he was fixed and called Rex. His bichon hair grew back. Now he’s called Bébé. This is a rescue.
View ArticleA Whodunit
A red-headed librarian is killed. Her husband has an alibi. Her lover has no motive. Her son is not deranged. A just-culled author done it.
View ArticleRunning Away
Leigh rode to the end of the line, walked the last mile, sailed to the edge of the sea, until she was off the map. And still, she was Leigh.
View ArticleAncient Oak
“Are you saved?” asks a new friend, by email. Ada settles under an oak tree and replies, “God saves me every day, whether I like it or not.”
View ArticleFancy Footwork
The only Spanish he knows, he learned on I Love Lucy. The only English she knows, she learned from her kids. Silently, they learn the tango.
View ArticleRolling With It
The earth shook a little. Nine patients in an oncologist’s waiting room looked up and smiled, unalarmed. “It’s an earthquake,” someone said.
View ArticleExuberance
Plucking a harp that isn’t there is not like air guitar. It looks strange. Jillian can’t speak, but she plays murmured concertos flawlessly.
View ArticleAlbuquerque
Mac has never seen the ocean. Alia has never seen a cow. They meet on Route 66. She’s having coffee late. He’s up early. Hello dawns slowly.
View ArticleBreathing Words
They thought it was the paper they missed, lined paper, onion skin, reams of bond, pages of books. No one even remembered the smell of ink.
View ArticlePassing the Peace
John and Luke went to church when visiting Alabama, because they’re church-goers. They entered holding hands and shared a Bible. That’s all.
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