Esoteric

/

Doctors make life-and -death decisions every day. Was today's the right one?

————

…medical chart’s esoteric inclusions confirmed Dr. Fulbright’s concerns regarding his patient’s condition. He was dying.

A reminder left by the ring of keys removed from his abdominal cavity during surgery threatened Jeremiah Rustin’s life. He entered the hospital two day ago following a fork lift accident. As a forklift driver tried to pass him in a narrow aisle Jeremiah was forced against a wall. The keys hanging from his belt were pushed into his abdominal cavity. Either the damaged intestines or the unsanitary keys initiated an…


By Robert L. Scarry

Read More

The Plead

/

…phone has been ringing continuously for the past thirty minutes and she sat on the couch starring motionlessly at the crying phone as tears streamed down her face. Marcel has called severally to futility.

Finally, perhaps after much thought, she decided to welcome the incoming call ''For all I care, get out of my life and let me be." She couldn't utter more, her tears choked the rest. "Taiwo please am..." was all he could say before she hung the call. The latter resolved into an uncontrollable sob, she's being traumatized, sentences from their last meeting reverberated in her head…


By Ekundayo Abiodun

Read More

Missed Connections

/

…me at the park at midnight. If you don’t show, I’ll assume you don’t want to go through with it. - M"

 

AJ didn’t notice the note stuck under his wiper until the rain began on Eldridge Road.

He watched it flutter up over morning traffic and considered stopping, but he was late for work already so he let it go, focusing instead on his coffee.

After several long minutes in flight the note landed at the feet of a bus stop patron. She opened it, read it, considered it a moment, then threw it in the…

 

By Nova Walsh

Read More

We Live As We Dream--Alone

/

I shared space with people called family. We had the same address, ate at the same table, even had the same last name, but we were strangers. We all lived alone together.

————

…haunted by memories.

I can still see that model airplane I built when I was twelve years old. I had a job delivering newspapers after school and saved all my money through most of the seventh grade. I wanted to buy an authentic P-40 Tomahawk fighter kit I'd been eyeing in the window of Thompson's Hobby Shop. It even had a working motor. The manager told me it…


By John Graham

Read More

Inka’s Curse Part 24: Shoreline

/

…seems to be in pain. Her nose must be dying. We stand in silent as she says her prayer one last time.

The only way to return to shore was to swim.

I felt a tug and then I’m suddenly underwater. I fight to pull away.

There was nothing we could do as he swam around us laughing. A dolphin man from the group we met a few days ago. How could we fight him in his territory? Rachel couldn’t wield her bow. Titan was still recovering from the ghosts. I had my sword, but I couldn’t use its magic…

By Cristina Collazo

Read More

The Cedar Chest

/

Do inanimate objects pick up the energy around them? Do they absorb our emotions?

————

…am a unique, cedar chest.  My purpose is to keep priceless treasures safe and secure. Although other woods may grace my outside, inside, cedarwood lines my inner walls, bottom, and lid.  Cedarwood is a natural preservative which protects by deterring moths and other insects.

In 1964, a young woman became my new owner. She refinished my exterior, changing the color to an antique blue, and I became her hope chest. The young woman would always keep me against the footboard of her bed.  Periodically, my lid…


By Nancy Lou Henderson

Read More

Regrets? Not I

/

…you had it to do again, would you?” The expression on her face, tubing in her arms, the beep of the machine and her head resting on a pillow warned me to craft my response carefully. Would I? the thought echoed. There are things I would do differently; study harder, be more resolute about my future and career. Overall, however, I have no regrets regarding choices I made or their consequences.

In that moment of thinking I realized how much she had sacrificed, and how selfish I was. She raised four children while I chased an education. She stayed at…

By Robert L. Scarry

Read More

Mr. Sunshine

/

…Sunshine has struck again,” the news reporter said from Bree’s TV. “Another woman—his tenth victim—has been found. Like the others, she was bound, strangled, facing east, and her eyes…” the reporter blinked, shaking her head.

“She shows signs of the same torture as his previous victims,” the co-reporter said. “Time of death, again, correlates to early morning hours.”

Bree shut off the television. “What kind of crazy fu—”

Hinges squeaked and she spun around. Her breath caught as she watched her closet door swing open. A man rushed from behind it and tackled her, shoving a wet cloth over her…


By L.L. Asher

Read More

Rain Song

/

Dreams and ghosts. Memories and midnight. Was I lonely or alone?

————

…cheap night.

It was always the same thing. A dirty street, across from a muddy park, down from a polluted river.

She would sit on the bench at the transit stop with her brown bag poison. Sometimes she would hold it up to the sky, as an offering; sometimes she would just drink it.

After a few choked back slugs she would begin to sing. A throat warble, really, but she tried.

Songs about heaven and songs about horses.

One night as I was watching her party for one…


By Shauna Woodbury

Read More

Inka’s Curse Part 23: A Prayer

/

…tries a bunch but they all fail. He can barely complete a sentence.

“Alright then I need you two to be as quiet and as still as possible.” At that point, she knelt down and closed her eyes.

“Listen to me,” Rachel said out loud, “Listen to my prayer and enter Mother Nature’s arms. Find safety and peace within her.” She recited her short prayer. The ship shook minutely as Rachel chant some words she probably thought she lost with the rest of her memories. They rolled off her tongue, and she prayed that Mother Nature would manage to hear…


By Cristina Collazo

Read More