Month: February 2012

The Day of the Dead by RLB Hartmann It’s October. The air has grown mild and dry, sere like the skin of an old person, pungent. On a worn bench beneath whispering maples shading the plaza, I watch families. Stubby fathers in work clothes, mothers in bright skirts below their knees, children swarming everywhere. Those…

Step Two by Julia Newman I wish I could sit down right here. Would that be so weird? In the middle of the aisle, right here? All cozy and cross-legged in front the day old cakes, the Pepperidge Farm display, and the peanut butter. Back against the freezer, that nice cool door separating me from…

Turtle Dreams ?by Susan Dickman She inhabited a different universe. Metaphorically stuffed cotton in her ears while others listened to rock, Bach or disco, though remembered vividly the slick plum-colored skirt and wrap her mother had bought for her fifteenth birthday when dancing was again all the rage. But the girls danced with each other,…

The Beating ?by K. Zeth Ozbirn ?He?s still down there,? the guard said as he turned to his sentry, their helmets shining in the faint torchlight. ?How long?s it been?? ?Three days.? They looked down the cold rock wall at the man beating his fists against the large metal doors that lead to the courtyard.?…

Josephine by Fritzroy Austin Sterling   When Josephine strutted into Saturday Morning, the Sky King of both horizons parted the early morning fog and the long, narrow road ahead looked like a never-ending runway. By then, word of her arrival had spread and the grapevine had sprung into full swing.? She had arrived late last…