Gas Waltz

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A flash-fiction by Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino

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…sign read OPEN 24 HOURS. It hung beneath a giant red and yellow scallop that wheezed each time a wind pushed across its cracked and sun-blasted surface. Dave Mannion, former stock car racer and one-time owner of a ’56 Corvette, was standing at its base scuffing the weeds into heaps with his soiled work shoes. The station grounds had been neglected, weeds jostled through the chaps in the ill-laid asphalt paving. Dust was accumulating everywhere. The dry hot wind was ceaseless, and the Carson City weather made no mention of rain. He felt…


By Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino

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Why Won’t You Watch?

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…can’t you watch? Marlene has no problem watching; why do you? Marlene not only is watching she has a smile showing her approval. While you...you remain emotionless

Kenneth may have been Marlene’s “pride-and joy”, but Kenneth was a “bad dude.” His going away was a blessing for everyone...except Marlene, of course.

I really had no choice. When Phyllis developed a relationship with Kenneth, she ceased being a part of my life. For me that was devastating. Phyllis was my older sister; she was part of my life from the day I was born. Then Kenneth’s influence began; she…


By Robert L. Scarry

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Inka’s Curse Part 26: A Few Drinks

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…carefully cleans out his visible wounds before checking on mines. After we had left the beach, we went to the village. A flintstone and striker. Three quick hits and the glowing sparks flew. We carefully held onto the makeshift torches to the local village. 

“Let’s go eat...and drink,” Rachel said. We unanimously decided to go to the bar before staying at the inn.

Rachel orders us the first round. We start talking about the mighty dragon. I gulped. “He must be over 100 feet long and almost as tall. In all my life, I’ve never seen anything as magnificent…


By Cristina Collazo

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The Quantum Engine

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A work of speculative fiction about the mystery of the universe.

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…Hartock was an abused child. He remained silent. No one knew what happened, but people knew he rarely talked. He never looked directly into another person’s eyes. He avoided contact. When he was very young mechanical toys were his only friends. He listened to them and marveled at the way the toys moved, spinning and racing across the playroom floor. As he grew older, his love for toys developed into a love for computers and robots. When he turned eighteen he was given a sex-bot. He grew to love…


By Lee Balan

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Inka’s Curse Part 25: Memories

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…just scared of her. You’ll soon see there’s nothing to be scared of.” I change my answer. “I do trust her. And you should too.”

No matter what she did, Rachel couldn’t recall her childhood. She couldn’t remember where she grew up, what the names of her friends were, all the times she had likely gotten in trouble unless somehow she was a perfect kid and she merely didn’t know. She didn’t remember if she’d had her first kiss or if she had ever done something absolutely foolish on a dare or if she’d ever even had the friends she…


By Cristina Collazo

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Esoteric

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

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…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

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The Plead

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…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

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Missed Connections

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…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

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We Live As We Dream--Alone

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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.

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…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

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Inka’s Curse Part 24: Shoreline

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…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

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