Ficton
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Panda Mitt
by Michael Kozart “Everything’s sold out,” says the sales rep at Sports Bazaar.” She wears a mask with a clear plastic shield like a windshield. “But we’ll order direct from the factory. Neoprene for grip, rainbow hues for fun.” I feel for her, making the sale’s pitch while I sit curbside in air-conditioned comfort. It’s… Continue reading
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Sundowning
by Nathaniel Krenkel The green plate rests in my lap. “Imagine how much this would cost in a restaurant.” Under different circumstances, I’d say something rude—the snarky son—but for now, I stay silent and force another bite of the walnut and raspberry buckwheat pancake. “Susie, you’re boy is here,” he says. My mother’s head remains… Continue reading
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Firing Sonny Lane
by Mark Connelly Everybody hates Sonny Lane now. The pile-on was predictable from the Joe Rogan interviews to the SNL skits. He wasn’t in R Kelly or Weinstein territory but as cancelled as can be. Not facing jail but enduring the St. Helena of Betty Ford and Dr. Drew mea culpas. He’d always been a… Continue reading
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Two Flash Fiction Pieces by Shareen K. Murayama
Where We Grew Up Where we grew up, our mother’s half moon eyes and laughter disappeared in the scissors of the mountains. We mapped her happiness to our father, but directions are just hand-me-downs of where someone’s already been. Where we grew up, they blanketed the lake with a golf course. Blue were our mother’s… Continue reading
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At Laurel Lake
by Beth Sherman I study Leila’s body as she swims to the raft. Her strokes smooth and sure, her tan arms a promise. Her body zigs away from the shore, her legs a fluttery moth. She is 13, her head filled with Taylor Swift songs and some boy she met at the mall. September. The… Continue reading
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Musings in a Polka Dot Bikini
by Christy Hartman The saleswoman convinced me that women my age could wear a two-piece. Retro-style, black with white polka dots. “You’ve earned those curves, wear them with pride.” Body-positivity is a peer pressure I had not anticipated. This morning I removed the tags from my new loose black cover-up and perched oversized sunglasses on… Continue reading
January House Literary Journal 