Tag: fiction

How to Haunt Your Loved Ones

Hello! Welcome to the afterlife! What’s that? This isn’t what you were expecting? Yeah, we get that a lot here. No pearly gates, no streets of gold, no many named Peter with a list checking to see if you’re supposed to even be here? We’re still scratching our heads on that last one. What a… Continue reading How to Haunt Your Loved Ones

The Past Office

For fifteen years the letter sat beneath the antiquated mail sorter. A clumsy man named Clyde, who would retire three months later (and be buried fourteen days after that), had dropped it and it slid several feet beneath the bulky contraption with the silly name. He thought briefly about retrieving it, but his sciatica was… Continue reading The Past Office

The Low Probability Bike

I remember the first time Beckett showed me the prototype. I met him in the parking lot of a Starbucks on Parker. He unloaded the garish thing from the bed of his truck, and I helped him lower it to the pavement. A couple entering Starbucks pointed and laughed at us before the door closed… Continue reading The Low Probability Bike

Stella’s New Family

Sometimes, your family finds you. The tide is turning. I never remember if it is in or out. But the ocean noises change when the tide turns. I can’t remember who taught me that. Maybe my grandmother? I was named after my other grandmother, Stella. She had had six boys and never knew how to… Continue reading Stella’s New Family

Sisyphus on Vacation

The heat is stifling. Our footsteps are an endless string of dry crunches on the shoulder of California State Route 190. Whose idea was it to put a bed-and-breakfast in Death Valley? Something tugs at my consciousness.  She looks at her phone again.  She always looks at her phone at this point. I can’t remember… Continue reading Sisyphus on Vacation

In a Hospital Far Away

“It’s a nice room.”  The voice is familiar, but I can’t place it.  Am I sleeping? Dreaming? I hear a series of melodic beeps filling the air. They have their own distinctive pitch and period. But that can’t be right, I’m no longer…, “Wayne, he’s waking up,” a soft voice filters into my awareness. As… Continue reading In a Hospital Far Away

A Session with Doctor Palmer

Today is our third meeting. The couple sits huddled together on the client’s couch. They always shiver and ask me to turn up the heat. Leanne holds the white blanket bundle on her lap like a devotee might hold a sacred relic. I can’t get her to put it down. “So, what are you saying,… Continue reading A Session with Doctor Palmer

Is this Heaven?

That woman ahead looks so familiar. It’s a humid morning, Sweat drips down the side of my face. I’m carrying my backpack though, so I’m getting a bit of a workout during my walk. It took me ten minutes, but I finally overtook the woman walking the two dogs. She was tall and slender, wearing… Continue reading Is this Heaven?

After Johnny’s Funeral

Revenge is a dish best served perpetually. I drop my purse on the kitchen counter and exhale for the first time in what feels like a decade. I hope my tears were convincing. After the funeral, Helen hugged me tightly, then looked at me with a strange expression that made me wonder. The way her… Continue reading After Johnny’s Funeral

Wormhole

The exterminator wipes his brow, pockets his grease-stained handkerchief, and checks his tablet again. “Yeah. We don’t see a lot of these. If I’m honest, they told us about these in class, but I swore the instructor was pulling our legs. Pranking us. You know? That it was a joke to see which of us… Continue reading Wormhole

Bohío

His thick fingers shake with nerves and are damp with sweat. It takes the shorter man two attempts to pry open the tiny tin lid. The three of them peer in at the contents. The pills seem too small. Are they supposed to be that small? Rick wonders idly. There are three in the tin,… Continue reading Bohío