Galen’s cigarette dimmed as his boozy brain struggled to calculate the tip. Julie, drunk and already wearing her jacket, wobbled as she waited on spiked heels. Her barbs at dinner now the usual course. Galen ignored it. No point in fighting. The pen slipped from his greasy fingers and reaching for it, he noticed his … Read moreUse Caution Near the Exit
Silver mesh covered Donna’s head like a beekeeper’s hat. She wore as much copper jewelry on her ears, neck, nose, wrists, fingers, toes and ankles as she could carry. Some of the newer pieces left ugly green rings on her skin, but she hoped it meant that copper was leaching into her body. She had … Read moreFairies Tale
“I should be working for the Library of Congress,” Dwayne said to his dog Mr. Pickles who was busy pursuing a crumb of bacon under the stove. “I know how to catalog things, and find them again later. Sometimes years later!” Dwayne unboxed a collection of National Geographics he bought at a thrift store. Six … Read moreBibliophile of Neglect
Horace Mangrove stood at the edge of the dry goods counter, patiently waiting his turn. He observed a customer complaining about the quality of the flour purchased a week prior. “It was infested with weevils! My wife nearly died from shock as she made the morning bread and found more weevil than ground … Read moreThe Misfortune of Fortune
Wes concentrated, his left hand steadying the right as he filled out a postcard of a giant potato chained to a flatbed truck. “He’ll love it. It’s kitschy,” Wes thought. He and Devin were cut from the same cloth—a bolt hidden in a long-dead branch of the family tree. Wes never felt any connection to … Read moreStroke of Bad Luck
The beeping started out quiet and high-pitched like the squeak of a violin strike, then grew louder and louder until Tommy had to reduce the gain on his radio or risk breaking the speakers in his tiny headphones. After the beeping peaked, the pitch would dropped like a slooping trombone, as the beeps faded into … Read moreThe Radio and the Russians
Ronald used a nickel minted in 1974 to remove the ink from a ten-thousand dollar scratch-off lottery ticket. He turned the coin into a necklace that cost three thousand dollars and spent the rest of his winnings on a party to celebrate his windfall. The necklace had a special gold mounting so he could pop … Read moreNickel and Dime
Bennie and Rob had passed by the empty lot hundreds of times. They’d been walking to school together since first grade in the most gentrified neighborhood in Idaho. The fifty blocks of formerly blue-collar Victorian, Gothic Revival and Craftsman homes nestled against the nearby mountains drew thirty-somethings from around the country seeking a taste of … Read moreThe Best and the Brightest
Ron’s birth was unlike any the midwives had seen before. His mother, Verdella, said the contractions felt more like firm hugs instead of bands of barbed wire roping around her abdomen. When the baby crowned, light burst from her vagina. As the birth went on the light grew brighter and brighter until the midwives were … Read moreThe Messiah and The Peanut
Jerry’s trailer sat alone in the high desert, tethered on a half-acre plot ringed by a pig-wire fence. Native plants pushed against the fence like an inland sea. Bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, and sagebrush had grown like coral against a ceaseless tide of wind and sun, slowly rising up as a collective able to withstand the blasts … Read moreJerry’s Trailer