Stories

When her husband died, she found three words written in his notebook, over and over. Three words he hadn’t said to her in years.

Jamie Rosen writes, even when trying not to.

Santa smiled at the little boy and gave him a present with his very own hands. The boy held it and said, “When does the happiness start?”

Laura DeHaan doesn’t much like Christmas.

“Here’s an old memory.” She put the radio to the boy’s ear so he could listen to the static. “That’s what rain sounded like,” she whispered.

Dennis Y. Ginoza is working towards his MFA in Writing at Pacific University.

Mike says sure, enjoying how casual he sounds. Jim thanks him too much. Then both go silent, watching the pen scratch across the check.

R. Gatwood is concise.

Shirtless, he struck a match on his zipper and lit the Village Voice crumpled under kindling.  Hand me the wood, he said.

Michael Dean Anthony lives in Austin, TX and edits Thumbnail Magazine.

“Why do you always do that with my boyfriends?” Her twin hesitated. Then came the familiar excuse: “It’s their fault for not knowing.”

Noel Sloboda lives in Pennsylvania with three dogs, two cats, and one wife.

Lipstick in tiny hand, she ornaments the mirror. She’s too young to translate, but I’m experienced. It says, “I love you and this is yours.”

Kenneth Parker is a student and musician living in the Pacific Northwest. He has work forthcoming from Scifaikuest.

The six-foot nopal, pale in the Arizona moonlight, almost made him forget the gag.

JP Allen lives in Danville, Kentucky, and studies Political Science in Middlebury, Vermont.

A hollow ache, all her life. Then one day, she saw the news and wept. Sirens, a mangled wreck, and a stranger whose face mirrored hers.

Tina Doan moonlights as a medical student.

Her father always had trouble discerning the two, so she gave him a hint. Fiction, she said, was love; nonfiction, hate.

Robert Swartwood (@RobertSwartwood) is the editor of Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer.