Issue 20, the all-flash issue, features nine very short stories from eight intriguing writers. Real estate and record shops, masochism and murder, doppelgangers, majorettes, toys and tears and closets of love…it’s all here. The stories are illustrated with original art by Stephen Shearer, Andy Batt, and our featured artist, three-time NEA Fellow Ira Joel Haber.
We hope you enjoy. Read the stories, print them out, and tell your neighbor, your lover, your barista–anyone who might be in the market for a good story.
Over There, by Steven Gillis
I’ve tried to explain the situation to Jenny Darne, my buddy Earl Darne’s wife, have told her in no uncertain terms as we undressed in our room at the Tuckit Inn, how conformity is not a dirty word, is the measure of a man’s worth, his willingness to fit in and become part of the whole. “There are certain things a man can’t do.” I flip her over and make sure she gets my point.
The Last Record Store, by Corey Mesler
You walk into the last record store on Earth. It was quite a trek to get there. The clerk has complicated hair and a tattoo that says, “John Lives.” You say to him, “I need that music from that film. The one where the guy meets the gal and she and he do things that people in movies mostly don’t do.”
Closet of Love, by Dylan Lee
They walk towards the Closet door and step inside. The door shuts and the woman speaks. “I don’t love you yet. Is the Closet broken?” “No, but let’s give it time,” the man says, his voice shaking. He has never been good at love. Not since the prom accident 16 years ago. He still has a scar.
Bugaboo, by Jenny Pritchett
They turned toward Antonia, and as the black fringe of the girl’s hair shuddered Antonia imagined her tongue heavy like a whale in the girl’s mouth.
The Double, by Laura Schadler
This time she knew it meant death. It meant climb to the tops of towers and fling yourself onto the spikes. It meant put on your wedding dress and burn down the house. It meant make dinner, set the table, ask how his day was.
What the Parade is For, by Laura Schadler
On the roof with this man, she felt that everything was its most superlative version of itself, matchless, incomparable, and without equal. The bay glistened and was dotted with ferries. She touched his hipbone and felt sure that she’d seen it somewhere before.
I Live in a Triangle, by Stephen MacKinnon
I began to think of myself as I once was. A simple, stable, ordinary high school geometry teacher. Triangles, I always told the students, contain no mysteries. If you know two angles, you can find the third. Pythagoras did all that work centuries ago.
Delectable Waters, by Anita Garner
She puts two plates into the oven to warm. She will tell him tonight that she’s leaving, wash the dinner dishes, and quietly leave. No scene. He will hardly miss her. She folds the napkins and gets out the salt and pepper. Dinner is almost ready. She puts the kettle on for tea.
Sharper, by Jackie Shannon-Hollis
Two-hundred four: Come to me, marching up the driveway, at 8:58 p.m. wearing a red drum majorette uniform with gold epaulets on the shoulders and white boots that come to just above your knees and a tall hat with a black chin-strap and a shiny silver baton that will catch the light when I take it from you and use it.
We’re also pleased to bring you six images by our featured artist, Ira Joel Haber. Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is a sculptor, painter, book dealer and teacher. His work has been featured in numerous group shows both in USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum & The Albright-Knox Art Gallery. His paintings, drawings and collages have been published in many on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowments For The Arts Fellowships, two Pollock-Krasner grants, and The Adolph Gottlieb Foundation Grant in 2004. He teaches art at the United Federation of Teachers Retiree Program in Brooklyn.