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…
Stories
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…
Seventeenth and Clay
byWHEN MY HOUSEMATE CAME HOME, I WAS DOUBLED OVER on top of the monstrous 1940’s era heater that dominated the second floor of the flat we rented with two others….
My Left Tongue
byEVERYONE HAS TO BELIEVE ME, I JUST CAME IN HERE FOR THE FOOD. I’ve been peckish all day long, and I’ve been thinking about chicken with rice pilaf. Are those…
River
byAN A-FRAME WITH FRONT GABLES. Outside: a chipped Hudson Commodore. It’s Florida, 1969. The dawn of Disney. The alligators are newly relocated to Lake Jesup. The palms sag with heat,…
The Woman the Spiders Loved
byThe following is a story from our upcoming release I’ll Tell You a Love Story by Couri Johnson, due out April 14th, and originally appeared in Penultimate Peanut. We hope you enjoy, and if you’d…
Marble and Mud
byHARRIET WHEELED HER BIKE OVER TO THE CEDAR SHED BESIDE THE CABIN and propped it against the shed’s gray shingled wall, spotted with holes bored by the bees who call…