Torsade Literary Space The Tambinder Engine (part three)
The Tambinder Engine A McAlley Story (part three) She bagged the customer’s bottles with care, passed them across the counter. This one leaned to her. “Dustin is out of the country, I’ve heard. I know someone taking a flight tomorrow, who can carry a letter.” Deenie’s eyes shot all around […]
Fellyans (part five)
Fellyans (part five) In Bede’s house was one parlor suitable for guests. His mother’s legacy lined its walls, kept safe from accidents by grillworked shelves. She had been a great collector of commemorative items, of porcelains in red and white (“It’s not class, you know, having a mishmash”), and peculiarities of […]
Tourmaline: The Enemy (part one)
The Enemy (part one) Frederick as a voice passing her door, fading down an empty hallway. Frederick glimpsed on a public screen, holding up a cardboard sign: ALLIANCE OUT. Or a face that seemed entirely his, belonging to Mrs. Leonhardt’s new boarder, a young student. Not a face to be loved […]
The Tambinder Engine (part two)
The Tambinder Engine A McAlley Story (part two) Leaving, she scanned hard the direction Matthew would have gone. Maybe I’ve seen a ghost. Maybe I’ve had a fit. The bad air… At her rear bumper, she laid her armload on the gravel. The white truck had water jugs in the […]
Depression Glass (part four)
Depression Glass (part four) “Oh, that’s pretty. Is it, like, a fern?” “It’s a poisonous plant called hemlock.” “But, you mean, hemlock? How’s it growing here?” “You got me. I can look it up.” He patted his phone pocket. They were under hot sun, on weedy gravel, moving down from […]
The Tambinder Engine (part one)
The Tambinder Engine A McAlley Story (part one) The subject was a Carmadge, from the far side of the world. She had taken her car on a poking, cautious drive, where guardrails were off, where asphalt webbed itself into cracked rings, undermined by rain squalls come too late. Horses were […]
Tourmaline: Nedforum (conclusion)
Tourmaline Nedforum (part seven) The blue came alive as a moving picture, uniformed journalists furious over their phones, riding moving sidewalks behind bulletproof panels, along the plaza that approached the High Court building. Between the walks a motorcade moved […]
Tourmaline: Nedforum (part six)
Tourmaline Nedforum (part six) But a vision came, of himself too obviously up to something, not at rest on a mental health day, but outfitted for the office, escorting his mother around the market booths. Buying anything, because ticketholders […]
Tourmaline: Nedforum (part five)
Tourmaline Nedforum (part five) “Hands off, what’s wrong with you? Is that for your girl?” “Pretty stone, hmm? I don’t know of a name for it.” He gave her the cutest face he could manage. He raised a smile, […]
Fellyans (part four)
Fellyans (part four) He raised a warning finger. “Scoter, go indoors. Whimbrel, go with your brother.” Whimbrel had tiptoed to a spot, a particular flagstone of the walk, exactly at Scoter’s heels. Piqued, Scoter flung a dramatic aboutface, that skidded them both into Jorinda’s rosebush. “Ow! Ow! What’s your trouble, Whim?” […]