By Henry S. Reimert Photo provided by Patrick Shaffer Kari’s bicycle tires crackle and pop as they roll over the crushed oyster shells of the parking lot. She lets the bike coast to a stop and performs a practiced dismount. She lands with a little puff of white dust that spurts out from beneath her…
Read moreThe Way of the Chapels
By Ken Foxe Once, they used to race bicycles up the hill. Sinewy men and women, engorged calves and thighs, on near weightless machines resolutely climbing at what must have seemed like superhuman speeds. They called the race La Flèche, the Arrow, a coincidental harbinger of what the ascent has since become. The hill itself…
Read morePack Animals
By Leland Hames Editor’s Note: This is a continuation of “The Bodark“ Mike heard the howls of wolves echoing through the nearby forest as he stood enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine on the house’s front porch. As a field researcher on wolves and wolf behavior for most of his twenty-odd-year career with The U.S. Forest…
Read moreDevil’s Bargain
By Denise Longrie “I’m not worthy. I—I’m not a virgin.” Gods help me; it was the truth. A few gasps escaped from the people gathering outside our front door. Other people tittered. My beloved Vane, the cobbler’s son, stepped away toward the edge of the crowd, but he did not escape Papa’s glare. “The lot…
Read moreThe Bodark
By Leland Hames Gregory burst through the back door followed by four dirty, and excitedly barking dogs. What had been a peaceful Saturday reading time in the kitchen was suddenly a cacophonous chaos. “Dad! Dad!” There’s something in the woods!” Gregory yelled looking around for his father. Mike sighed and closed his book. He quietly…
Read moreSalvador Dali and the Convergence
by Douglas Kolacki Paris, 1966 Outside the restaurant’s back door, where I had to hold my nose to go in or out, I spotted a rat. It was sniffing around our four grimy trash cans, nose twitching until I ran up and kicked at it. It ran out of sight. Just before it disappeared around…
Read moreNot Gone Yet
by Ryan Steven Reed Edmund leaned against the split wood fence and watched Isabella shoe her horse. He spit tobacco flake into the soft, persistent prairie wind and exhaled a line of smoke to the east. The October sun, diligent in its watching, puddled shadows below the feet of Edmund, Isabella, and her horse, Ozy. …
Read moreThe Graveyard Gardener
by C. K. Bickford Sunset was the only time Rose understood what others meant when they said the cemetery was spooky. Shadows reached out from the tombstones like fingeres, searching for loved ones who had lost track of time. The pinks and purples of the sky clashed horribly with the grey stone, like a skeleton…
Read moreBorn Under a Bad Sign
by Lannie Pihajlic I stood there drenched to the bone in my underwear, with only a tenuous hold on reality. For some reason, I thought back to meeting Ronni. It was totally a random thing, meeting Ronni. She would say that it was Destiny, with a capital D. I didn’t believe that kind of thing….
Read moreBlack-Winged Terror
by WH Ware Ondale reached down with his scarred hand and picked up the white feather that had caught his attention. “Not avian,” he said softly as he examined it. Then, at its base, the telltale hairs stood out. “Yes,” he smiled, “a pegasus.” He was certain this time. Once before—many years earlier—he had made…
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