FLASH FICTION
Runner-boy by Chii Ọganihu
The boy stood no chance, really. They were five against his one, young men like him no older than twenty-three. He first sensed that something was wrong when one of the boys locked the heavy entrance door, leaned against…
Feather Brained by Jennifer Maloney
I’m just sitting down to write when my mother descends out of a Winston-blue cloud, nosy-necked, squinting. Her head glints with bobby pins, skinned-tight and sectioned, mapped out like a city block, an argument for redlining, a gerrymander, aspirational,…
Casino Woman/Tamil Girl by Sumitra Singam
Paati has put the TV on in the back room to keep us kids out of the way of the prayers. On the veranda, Appa sits shirtless before the homam fire chanting in Sanskrit after the priest. An ancient…
Brother Jack by Gloria Mwaniga Odary
performed miracles in the dining hall, handed you his phone to read out a text from Jesus; something about not letting a hair of your head perish. Brother Jack’s bullet voice tore into your flesh as he placed pulpy…
Nostalgia UTI by Trisha Dhar Malik
Packing up an old home into boxes. Heat of Bombay in May—impossible. Sweat everywhere. Sticky nostalgic and sad, the scene—not poetic or sexy. Sound of that stupid fan, an old creaky man. Over and over and useless like a…
Sleeping Arrangements by Alice Ashe
Keep. Keep? I said keep. Sure, all right. These too. Keep? Keep. Okay. And—keep. There’s still nothing in the donate pile. Keep it. Anyway some of this stuff we might use later. Hon. We might. Well. Sure. But someone else probably needs…
Two Old Friends and a Ghost Walk into the Woods by Anna Vangala Jones
We’d agreed to never come back to this place yet here we are. The wind whispers through the trees and unsettles our hair, trying to remind us to leave. Why would we return to these woods? “I don’t care…
Grandfather2 by Greg Hrbek
Current Life Situation: Lucrative Work-Assignment, Stable Marriage-Union, Model Son. After daily work-duty, take Municipal Transporter to Metro-Sector T—Genome Modification Center—and receive Target Sequence Update. Then hurry home. Find Model Son (name Theo) at study-station, solving math problem concerning volume…
Settle and Slake by Mikki Aronoff
We strive to slide and glide but list from side to side, bob up, bob down, settle for a sec or a minute. We shake our balding heads in minute arcs, lest we fall and fracture. We slake worries,…
My Sister’s Life as a Series of Rooms by Nora Nadjarian
Room 1 Which is pink or maybe sugar-white, and a cot and little fists stick out of a blanket and peachy cheeks and my mum bent over. The room is always quiet and milky and her little nails scratch…