Category: issue 15

On the day Dad is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ana arrives home from the hospital, does the dishes from the dinner—cluttered from the previous three days—puts some food out for Tufinho, sags back on the couch to spend half an hour crying, then finally opens the faucet in the sink, swirling her finger on the rising water.

Materials You will need: A standard 52-card playing card deck. Two jokers, separated. Fishing tackle, assorted. Don’t worry too much about the contents, just make sure you have a nice box. It’s mostly for show, anyway. One net, any size. Ten days’ rations. If you’re feeling particularly careful, fifteen. A boat. It belongs to your… Continue reading A Rényú-Hunter’s Guide to Playing Go Fish by Adeline Wong

At 4:48 on Monday, March 12, Theodosia touched the stove for the fifteenth time. Fifteenth time in Carly's tenure. How many times before that she couldn't guess. Hundreds . Or maybe the previous custodians were paragons whose attention never strayed even for a millisecond and who expertly dove in to intercept any wayward small hands.

I was walking my dog when I saw my wife for the first time, dancing on the grass in the park like it was an ancient meadow. There was no music—just the clink of her dangling moon earrings as she spun. I think I fell in love with her then, when all I knew of her was wild rhythm and the way she turned her face up to the sun.

ragg cleared one nostril, then the other, straightened his back with a satisfying clack, and shoveled another load of books, bullets, toys, and a wedding ring or two into the empty heart of existence. The objects glittered briefly in the blackness like stray ashes and were gone,. He grabbed the push-broom with knotty hands and began to sweep in the remnants that had escaped the shovel: mateless socks, family photos, trading cards, pencil nubs, a damp pile of Pogs--dancing for a second like dandelion seeds before winking out in the void.

Ganz didn’t realize he’d died until he found himself looking down at his own body lit by the early morning light which streamed through his bedroom window. Their bedroom window. As he hovered up by the ceiling where he’d found himself suddenly returned to consciousness, the bed below seemed impossibly far away, and he immediately… Continue reading All the Things He Loved Beyond Him by Scott Edelman

Long after the final attack on the Automatous Abbey, long after the enemy, repugnant and resplendent in their flesh and blood, had fired their array of weapons at the undefended structure, long after the Abbess had sounded the klaxons and evacuation alerts, and long after the remaining wreckage had lost the use of its engines and had begun tumbling through the cloudy tendrils of the nebula, bot CL-451, also known as Seal, kept cleaning the floors of the Abbey as it always had.

There exist places where the walls between worlds grow thin. Places like this one, where two villages press together like lips on opposite sides of a glass: Renna-tal and Renna-ba, both perched on the edge of the lake called Mirror. Built in the same precise spot, but a world apart, the villages are fraternal twins.… Continue reading Duet of Tears and Laughter by Jo Miles

Debut day isn’t easy for anyone, even a god. Newly minted, coin-bright, the god called Hark waits backstage. He’s about to go out to perform his first miracle, and he can hear his fans murmuring in front of the altar. They don’t know they’re the lucky ones that’ll get a visitation to enliven the community… Continue reading Fame Cycles of Pop-Gods by Cressida Roe

Aunt Jackie had warned me to be careful with Trey, the highest ranked male alpaca in her flock. His magical wool is so soft, we tolerate his posturing bullshit. I took the necessary precautions, sending a well worn shirt a week before I would arrive to familiarize the flock with my scent. Two of the… Continue reading That Summer at Aunt Jackie’s Alpaca Farm by Wen Wen Yang