Fiction – Page 4 – swamp pink

The Yellow Phase

January 12, 2023

I. Mrs. Yew was a widow who lived next door to us in the summer of ‘96, then she moved away or maybe fled—it depends on who you ask. When I knew her, I was an excruciatingly shy, small kid who survived mostly by being unseen. My father wanted me to be tougher, and my...

Landlocked

October 3, 2022

The first sale I made was the amber shirt. I photographed it from every angle in my empty living room, laid out on the hardwood, with the weak sunlight coming through the windows. Then I chose the best pictures and uploaded them to my Dresser. Vintage!!! I wrote in the caption. Bought on France Honeymoon...

Bendiciones

October 3, 2022

This shit was supposed to mean something. It was Abuelita’s new car. It was us inside it, driving to Del Rio so our señora could have this Caddy blessed by her hometown priest. It was Pops at the wheel, blasting the AC with the windows up, pushing his mother and seventeen-year-old daughter to the backseat...

In May

In my junior year of high school, an English teacher, with whom I was in love, had a breakdown and left just before the end of the year. Paul Sorbin was a veteran of Korea, and divorced. This last fact counted as something exotic in a small, New Hampshire town in 1957. The hint of...

Near Strangers

Betsy has a feeling she’ll get a call in the night, but it’s still disorienting when it happens. Four in the morning, pitch black. She had a glass of chardonnay last night, too, which has left her foggy-headed. You aren’t supposed to drink when you’re on call, but she had her neighborhood anti-racism meeting on...

Demonology, or Gratitude

For a while I lived with an older woman. Anyway, that’s what I told people. It would be more accurate to say she stayed with me when she had nowhere else to go. The lease for the tiny house where she came and went as she pleased was in my name, and I was the...

At Your Convenience

November 23, 2021

Old Lien wanted a son so badly she decided to make one. She found a do-it-yourself kit on eBay. Her sisters thought she was crazy for spending a chunk of her savings on a scam, a dream that died because it was wasted. Lien, however, was no fool. The seller had 98 percent positive feedback,...

Hit the Wall

November 23, 2021

March When you arrive at the court, Colin is already there. He’s stretching and chatting up Ricky and Drew, who are laughing. Of course they are, because Colin is so funny. That’s what everyone in the league always says. Colin? He’s so funny! Most people would add that he’s a great player. And some of...

Steppie

November 23, 2021

Malcolm’s two daughters slept over on Wednesday nights and every other weekend. That was the schedule, but more than not, Saturday mornings, before he went to get them, their mother called. He always took calls from Cindy in the other room, too far away for Simone to hear what he was saying. She didn’t need...

splash in water with sunset

Loyalists

The boy comes running across the backyard, hunched oddly, hands pressed to his belly, elbows jutting out. He wears an army surplus jacket and work boots that have been spray-painted black, with silver highlights on the sides that might be misshapen stars or anarchy signs. On his head is a dark purple scarf more fortune-teller...

hands on dirt with small plant

No More Kissing Talk

Later, Mrs. Zardari can’t help but think that she shouldn’t have given the bus driver a cough drop in the first place. She had fished it carefully out of her purse, without opening the purse all the way, for fear that something would drop out, and held the drop in her left hand, between her...

foggy mountaintops and forest

Mercy

Cori had not lived with a roommate in several years and approached the situation with trepidation. She had not been told with whom she would board. This was intentional, she suspected, not merely clerical truancy. The organization liked to have the upper hand. Most organizations do, but this one was famous for its rigid worship...