The Gospel According to Mary Mason
byA FOOT OF SNOW BLANKETS THE GROUND. Standing outside the hospital entrance, a robotic Santa twists and turns as it greets passersby. The radio’s blaring Christmas carols, and by the time…
Stories
Millennial Hero
byBEFORE SETH GOT MARRIED AND JON-BO CHECKED HIMSELF INTO REHAB, WE USED TO JUST WANDER AROUND TOWN. We’d pop into bookstores and read comics we couldn’t afford and ignore the way…
The Block
byTHE HOUSE WAS AROUND THE BLOCK, AT THE END OF LEO BABIC’S STREET. It’s long been torn down now. But thirteen winters ago Leo Babic went into it and never came…
Fugu
byTHE OLD MAN MAMORU WAS ON HIS BOAT IN YOKOHAMA WHEN TOSHIRO YELLED AT HIM. Oy, old man where are you going? Sailing north, he replied. Toshiro pointed at the…
Things About to Disappear
byAS EARTH’S GRAVITY SLOWLY WEAKENED, NO PART OF THE CIRCUS WAS MORE GREATLY IMPACTED THAN THE TRAPEZE ACT. Some circuses incorporated weights that approximated traditional gravity, but in addition to…
Baby Boy
byBABY BOY HAS DROWNED. Padrino is the last to notice. He doesn’t unplug his ear buds until The Old Man is pumping Baby Boy’s chest and mouth-to-mouthing. The last of the…
Family Circus
byBROTHER DIDN’T DIE THE DAY DAY HE DECIDED TO RUN OFF AND JOIN THE CIRCUS HIS JUNIOR YEAR. He piled into a tiny car with all the other Clowns wearing…
I Found My Heel at the Foot of an Oak
byI FOUND MY HEEL AT THE FOOT OF AN OAK. I remember someone somewhere calling this bone a talus, or maybe it was a calcaneus, maybe that was the word…
Cloudy
byTHE ROCKING WAKES BONNIE. Though not in bed, she is down and moving. One eye flutters open, sees clouds; the other, stuck. She floats over tall grass, men in reflective…
Sunflower
byMY DAD WAS A BIG BELIEVER IN THE THEORY THAT YOU COULDN’T TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND until you’d truly hit rock bottom, preferably wrenching your elbow and herniating discs four through…