‘Fiction’ Archives
One Blink for Yes
Two thousand, six hundred and forty-eight days. That’s how long I’ve been here, lambskin under my ass, tubes in my trachea and stomach. Numb everywhere except part of my face. The only things I move are my eyes. I must have the most muscular eyes on earth. The door to my room opens onto one end of the nurses’ [...]
Elizabeth
I don’t really know why it took me so long to look into it. I suppose that it has a lot to do with not wanting to know -- not wanting to know what happened, not wanting to know how it happened, and not wanting to know just how much Elizabeth had become a part of me. Curiosity kills cats, after all. And it can do the same to us; [...]
My Best Friend Forever
I stared out the window and watched the freshly-manured field pass by. Erica sat next to me, sleeping, her head on my shoulder, her mouth open. I caressed her arm and thought back to what Mrs. English, our history teacher, had said on the first day of school. She asked us where we wanted to be in five years. If she’d asked me when I was twelve, [...]
In Spring’s Bed
Spring’s fingers traced the dark welts on my chest, which Winter had left only days before. Winter had been bitter that year, but then again she’s always like that. She never changes. Even when she’s warm, you can feel her clawing into you, getting under your skin. Her nails are sharp, and they don’t tickle the way Summer’s do. If you [...]
A Chagall Figure in the Night
"There you are," my mother greeted me. "I was beginning to think you're not coming." "The bus connections were terrible, but I called the hospital. They won't get to you until late afternoon." My mother had fallen and broken her hip yesterday. "I still don't know how it happened. Lillian came in with fresh linens and I [...]
January Thaw
Winter came early and hard that year in Vermont. Tirelessly it had tantrumed, since October's end. So, as the two of them sat that January noon, at opposite corners of the sofa, those few inches between them a masonry, the heated air between them as thick as gelatin, that nigh space separating them as arbitrary, but as undeniable, as [...]
The Letter
It showed up on a Saturday in mid-December, stuck between two pieces of junk mail. I would have missed it if not for the wet, folded corner that stuck out like a thumb. The envelope was made of cheap, wrinkled paper, and there was no return address, but the postmark was from Boston. I sat down at the kitchen table and stared at it as though it [...]
Eve
It began as a simple assignment. As an upcoming — read struggling — photographer, I took whatever jobs I was offered. One of those happened to be taking pictures of women. When I told my friends, they laughed and raised their glasses. They slapped my shoulders, stinging my skin. I laughed along, though I didn’t find this funny. I told myself [...]
