Beth Watson
We helped her as often as we could. We brought leftovers when the foodstamps ran low and we gave her rides when possible. She was the youngest of six, the only girl. She slept on a mattress on …
Fiction
Fetus with a Special Purpose
(from Stories to Read Aloud to Your Fetus)
You were totally not supposed to exist seeing as how the Bikers for Christ Chief said I was too young to have babies. He had a super-big, movie-style bike which I rode …
Pop-Ups
My wife and I can’t agree on which shade of gray to paint the dining room. She blames my Baptist childhood.
“It makes communication difficult.”
My heart is in the wrong place, but my head bows in contrition.
She prefers …
The Funeral Party
We
request
the honor of your presence
on this August afternoon at the
funeral party
of
our
dear
Dwayne Hummel
Stannis Funeral Home
RSVP
Fourteen-year-old David was now the very last Hummel. He clung to the wall like a snail, …
Epic Heroes
Forget Beowulf. You can watch Beowulf. He’s in the front row wedged into a desk, hunchbacked over a Boston butt purchased to help a child with autism swim with dolphins on Dauphin Island. No utensils. His mighty penis fingers …
Prescience
Suppose you came to hear about the day Dr. Wu made himself a victim in the classroom. Not too long ago after his wife had left him, taking with her their only daughter for a job in the Catskills. Beach …
Laika
Babette came to the home the same week we got a television. They arrived three days apart, both dropped unceremoniously at the front door. Madame Durance never bothered much with the girls but was very put out by the lack …
Wind on the Moon
We did it so America could feel proud again. That’s what I tell myself whenever the silvery light shines through my window, going liar liar liar liar. I say, I have nothing to atone for. I say, No …
Salt
The incontestably worst part of living in Vermont was that the lawn behind Timmy’s house had no snails. There were slugs in the garden, fat slugs that he had only touched once to grab and pour salt on, but he …
Incident at the Resort
If the fishing fleet had left before dawn, as most fishing fleets do, the disaster would have been avoided. But the fact was that the fleet hadn’t done any actual fishing for some years. Increasing tourist traffic, drawn to the …
