Innuendo by Bill Vernon
Climbing up onto the truck bed, I didn't know what to expect, wasn't even sure what detasseling corn meant, but it paid $1.25 per hour, and the workers already in the truck…
Timid by Cara-Aimee Long
Peter did not think it was a good idea to jump in the car and drive three hours in order to pop in on his sister unannounced, but his parents were urging…
What You Grow by Heidi B. Morrell
It wasn't enough that he was self-centered and selfish, sometimes Barry Cranston acted downright arrogant. Certainly his younger girlfriend Cherie knew this. They had an off and on relationship, which at the…
[u] by David Novak
[u] was out of the question. That much was obvious. [u] was immature. It was juvenile. It was lazy and sloppy and thoughtless and in all honesty probably a little bit on…
Who Do the Voodoo? by Deborah Guzzi
Elizabeth, Bet for short, got on the road early. She was tired by the time she pulled off the highway onto the back streets of Manchester. She thought to herself, New Hampshire…
As She Sleeps by Eric Scott
She's sleeping on the sofa again. Her strawberry hair frosts her forehead. Strands of hair, like frayed ribbons, cover her brown eyes that seem to have grown darker with age. Tracks of…
Cecelia and Sun Tzu by Chris Palmer
A drab drizzle unwelcomed Cecelia when she woke to the first day of fifth grade. To fight back at the doom that seemed to stretch to next June, she snatched up her…
Of Dreams and Marriage by Jeffrey Zable
I was stationed at the top of a grassy hill next to a redwood tree. I had a gun that could only shoot one bullet at a time—to shoot another bullet one…
A Bad Message by Jeffrey Zable
I’d been giving out pennies to kids for about six months, as many I had in my pockets when they asked for them. Some days no child would ask for any; other…
California after the Fact by Julie Bartoli
Age 12 I got my first job behind a pushcart icebox filled with tubs of ice cream. Vanilla, chocolate and mocha, but never strawberry because the shitty Chinese man paying me an…