Stories

“A short life.” She runs age-tremulous fingers over the line crossing his palm. It’s from a knifeblade, but he nods, figuring she’s right.

R. Gatwood is concise.

During the audit, as the woman from the IRS combed through his receipts, he thought of how much simpler things were in the county jail.

Eric Boyd (@EricBoydtweets) writes a lot for different things. He is a winner of the PEN American Center’s 2012 Prison Writing Contest.

I’d eyed the scars halfheartedly concealed by sleeves for months. To believe would’ve been affirmation. To intervene would’ve saved her.

Melissa Thomas has written three novels and enjoys being Canadian.

He picked up her pink ribbon and felt his life unravel. He was envious even of the search dogs, her scent so fresh in their memories.

Jillian Schmidt lives in Oregon with her husband and several bicycles.

“Most of the tooth is still there,” he said. The child only cried harder.

R. Gatwood is no good at comforting the disturbed.

There’s no air in the jar and you expect me to breathe, but you never poked out any air holes for me.

Lucy Quin laughs at the Life Alert commercials.

After surveying the desolation of the burning world around him, Sisyphus pushed his boulder back into the valley and followed it down.

Kathleen Crow is owned by two cats who abuse her horribly.

“Tu ne seras jamais comme moi.” She didn’t know what the French meant, but she still said it to the mirror after each weigh in.

Brenda Cobbs is beginning to emerge from academic writing once again.

The sun flickered like a neon light, then went out. Sanja, under her father’s tree, wondered how long before the Earth grew cold.

Christian Martin posts sci-fi very short stories and geek poetry @PixelatedGuy.

I had to sneak my hand on the small of Marie’s back like a SEAL team. Two more drinks and she would have been your mother instead.

J. Bradley lives at iheartfailure.net.