The One

Reading Time: < 1 minute Like anyone growing up, Glenda wondered if she would ever meet The One. When she was very small she heard adults talk in hushed voices about others who had found The One: Young women when they least expect it, some women when they thought they Read More …

Catfish

Reading Time: 14 minutes “Kishar is coming.” As a production assistant, it was Olivia’s job to prescreen show applications. The principle of the show was simple: People who have never met their Internet sweetheart get to meet in person. Some had good stories but travel expenses made uniting them Read More …

I Know That Sound

Reading Time: < 1 minute “I know that sound,” she said. She recognized the rhythmic nature of the thumping sound. Was it plumbing? A loose window screen? It sounded so familiar. The sound seemed like it was coming from everywhere. She looked around the inside of the house. She walked Read More …

That’s My Gal

Reading Time: 7 minutes The facts of the case were undisputed. The defendant had murdered a man in the heat of the moment. But what would the punishment be under the circumstances? There was no precedent for a scenario like it. The entire world was watching. Janine Gardner was Read More …

Tales from the Heart

Reading Time: 4 minutes Very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am. The tension in the household gradually increased until I had no alternative but to kill him. My anxiety made me cautious up until the very end. The disease had sharpened my senses, and I felt every Read More …

Cozy Living

Reading Time: 7 minutes She would never show it, but this was always her favorite part. It would be uncouth to appear like a braggart, and the men wouldn’t appreciate being made to feel like simpletons, so she was always careful to couch her statements in gentle guidance, rather Read More …

Natural Causes

Reading Time: 4 minutes It started when his dentist recommended a night guard to stop popping enamel off the sides of his teeth. He was fitted with a custom plastic bit to grind so that he’d stop sliding his teeth across each other in his sleep. The night guard Read More …

72 Hours

Reading Time: 6 minutes It wasn’t in his glove box either. Where could he have put it? It hadn’t rolled under the car seat or into the back. How could he have been so careless with something that could save his life? The tremors returned as his blood pressure Read More …

Little Cat Feet

Reading Time: 4 minutes I didn’t think much of the mist as it climbed over the distant hills. I hiked this trail often, and the fog usually burned off by the time I would get that far. It was a cool day, but the humidity and light breeze were Read More …

Vacation Rental

Reading Time: 2 minutes The trip? Well, firstly, it was dirty when we got there. I was amazed how much cleaning I had to do on my very first day of vacation! On top of that it was more crowded than we were expecting. Pardon? No, it wasn’t a Read More …

Bibliomancy

Reading Time: < 1 minute “Is… Is that how you READ?” she asked.‬ I glanced up from my book with annoyance. “Of course.”‬ The woman set her coffee cup down on my table and snatched my book out of my hand. I was furious, not only with her interruption but Read More …

Base Camp

Reading Time: 10 minutes You are such an asshole, Aaron. He couldn’t think of anything else. Here he was, driving through the middle of nowhere, braving dust storms, sinkholes, mountain climbing, and torrential rains for some dead son-of-a-bitch who couldn’t bother to plan a decent funeral before going off Read More …

Cloudbusting

Reading Time: 6 minutes He’d been coming there for a long time. Sometimes he just stared up at the clouds. Sometimes he cried. Katie hated to see him upset. Sometimes it made her cry too. Sometimes, they had great, long talks about what they saw and did that day. Read More …

The Look

Reading Time: 5 minutes He first saw her at the bookstore in the Poetry/Drama section. She was a redhead, his favorite hair color, and she wore it like his ex-girlfriend. (Not the crazy ex, but the one before that, the one he’d never get over.) It was his favorite Read More …

The Taste of Honey

Reading Time: 10 minutes As he flipped through waiting room magazines, he tried to find one that would occupy his mind. He had been struggling with his body’s mutiny against him for months. At first he tried to convince himself it was just the normal act of aging, metabolism Read More …