Torsade Literary Space Bad Counsel (part two)
Short Stories Bad Counsel (two) Andrée begins to see. Andrée already, to her mother’s chagrin, lives rent free. But she gets it, how Sam might need six months or a year, maybe more, to build his house. Leo has talked to her about inspectors. You do […]
Bad Counsel (part one)
Short Stories Bad Counsel (part one) This is one of the bigger things, this teaching of lessons. We descend a hill, soon to stand among the cattails at the lip of the frog pond, with Andrée and Sam Magruder, a man who may be her father. […]
The Ad Said (conclusion)
Short Stories The Ad Said (part two) “No, they’ll have chairs at the station. We’ll have to move careful, soon as we get into town, see if we spot anything in the gutter.” “Yeah…I wish we had just a dollar, so we could get coffee and a snack […]
Flash Fiction: The Volunteer
Flash Fiction The Volunteer His arm held in the grip of officialdom, he would tug, but gently, allowing himself otherwise to be moved along. He would search faces for the onlooker willing to meet his eyes, and flash a smile to convey that […]
Flash Fiction: Advice for Lightning
Advice for Lightning The yellow fog was half smoke, and a breaking sun’s rays glittered through this, cast over cinders. Being late to take advice, thinking no one had come to the door, she went out at last. Someone had. A flyer of emergency numbers hung from the knob. Leandrew […]
Flash Fiction: Character
Flash Fiction Character Though the question occurs…whether this is not a product of nostalgia, this notion… Of character or coherence… Coherence, adhesion, McAlley says to himself. Redundancy. Like healing like. Things that were familiar have fallen to schemes, none of which looks […]
Flash Fiction: Free for All
Flash Fiction Free for All Suzette, who was going to teach how to sell lip gloss, eye palettes, body glitter— (H.E.N. the name of the line, which had underlying meaning, feminist sardonic, and official meaning: Health, Energy, Nature…) Had a drawing-in-of-the-lips habit. Long, impractical nails. […]
Flash Fiction: Peckish
Peckish “I don’t try to get out of things. I try my best not to get into things.” The weasel had dropped by, as he put it, coming on at first by a peristaltic rippling over a basswood’s roots. The roots canopied water pooling naturally between a fallen trunk and […]
Flash Fiction: Fallen Short
Flash Fiction Fallen Short Darian thought an attic window black as that could not be empty behind the glass. But no one who’d broken the others could pitch a stone to reach so far. She wondered if this were true. […]
Flash Fiction: Pine
Flash Fiction Pine Salvador had gone off, more of a brood than a hunt, though he carried his shotgun and walking stick. That suited Bridie, who wanted to feel free, picking over her herbs, seeing what had come back in the flower bed. Bluebells, […]