Fiction

Jan watched as he came through the front door, leaned the dirty shovel against the wall, and took off his muddy boots. She ran up, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him. She didn’t care that he was sweaty and covered in dirt—in fact, she kind of liked it.             “It’s finally over, […]

I came here to find love, just like all the other participants on this island. Difference is, I meant it. For those of you watching, you’re probably wondering if this live stream is actually part of the season finale, if it’s actually sanctioned by the network. You’re also probably wondering if this gun is real […]

On the outside, Rick was steel. He nodded as the Don lectured him, never breaking eye contact with the old man. Never flinching at his veiled threats. But on the inside, alarms blasted through Rick’s head. His muscles coiled and his heart rattled like gunfire. The smoke-filled office became increasingly hot and choking. Suffocating. Rick […]

1989 “Damn!” my cousin Angie said, for the fifth time. “It’s hot.” “So jump in the pool.” It was July 4th weekend. Sticky, like a giant snow cone had dripped all over us. Her  folks’ pool we had to ourselves: an above-ground piece of shit. No more shore house. “Thanks to you, Sue,” Angie sneered. […]

There are truths to this world. Most are what they should be: universal. Others, however, can be circumvented, allowing men like me to not only flourish, but thrive. It means the list of names we pull from McDonough and a bent cop named Stout works better than I’d hoped. Not perfect by any means, as […]

The outside tables hadn’t been cleared. Half-eaten chicken carcasses sat amongst piles of abandoned fries, scrunched napkins, and upended bottles of chili sauce. A heated breeze funnelled down the street, picking up one of the napkins and carrying it over to the neighboring restaurant. Two teenage girls in identical aprons rested their elbows on the […]

The newspapers once called her whole neighborhood an “open air drug market”, which was bullshit. But you couldn’t tell by what she was seeing now. Four guys off in a corner of the huge park are doing some kind of transaction in a stand of trees while she sits on a bench nursing her bad […]

The girl waited outside the barn with the flashlight in one hand and the shovel in the other. It was mid-April and the night was cold. It didn’t take but a minute before the old woman came out of the barn with the bundle of linens in her arms. They walked into the field, the […]

Belinda’s grandmother, who insists on being called Gabby, wears classic t-shirts with the images of bands fading across the front. Fleetwood Mac is missing most of Lindsay Buckingham. The Grateful Dead are mere ghosts of themselves. Heart’s “Dreamboat Annie” has sunk. Sixteen-year-old Belinda loves the way they look on her skinny grandmother and is certain […]

Jim Younger was a copper thief like his father before him. His predilection for stealing the metal led to most of his earthly troubles. He broke his ankle when he was nineteen and sneaking into a condo development. He had a nasty scar on his left calf from an overzealous guard dog when he was […]

“You can’t catch me—I’m the gingerbread man!” My daughter squealed the words as I closed the storybook  “Sissy Bee, go find grandma.” I pulled four bundles from my sock drawer. Two grand. The take from the last round of cooks.  *** Three gates north and a right up an overgrown road to where my granddad […]

Just before daylight, a knock rattles the front door like a branch slapping against her trailer’s tin roof. Lara’s expecting this, but when she opens the door she doesn’t expect Roger. One eye’s swollen shut. Blood oozes from gashes in multiple locations. The hilt of a knife protrudes from his back shoulder. He looks more […]