Reginald’s stare was unnerving, and then he made an observation that seemed to put the lie to my last statement. “If you only get ‘joy’. . . ‘from doing the best you can’ and ‘from the finished story’ why send it to be published? Wouldn’t you get as much ‘joy’ from leaving it in your desk drawer?”

Johnny ignored her tone and knelt down, eye level with the water. “They’re microscopic. You have to use a magnifying glass to see them. At least that’s what it says.” Johnny stood from his crouched position. He pointed at the magnifying glass he left on the kitchen counter. “It’s over there. You can look if you want.”

What’s that, Your Honor? No, I would not like it if you were to hit me over the head with a fire extinguisher. But, surely, the situations are not analogous. On the one hand, that would be an unprovoked attack on your part. You don’t think so? I see. Let’s put the fire extinguisher aside for the moment then. Admittedly, my client would have been better off if he had done so.

But now…now…now there was no denying that something in his life was horribly, deeply wrong. A structure that he did not understand but had always been faintly aware of had made itself violently apparent, and he felt as though he’d discovered an extra limb; for how long had it been there? Was it removable? Who had noticed, who had been too polite to say anything about it to his face? everybody? Who’s in on this?

She brushed a tear away. The dresser absorbed her confession and she could feel the muscles in her neck and shoulders begin to release. She got up, put the stray clothes in the hamper and left to clean up the breakfast dishes.

Carly sat alone at the table. The room buzzed with students. She watched Nicole, surrounded by the older girls, walk straight out of the cafeteria. Her friend did not look back as they headed toward the cemetery. Carly wanted to scream, to run to the first staff member she could find and turn Nicole in. Let her sit alone in the office, she thought.

He was a knight in shining armor rescuing her from an old maid existence. She never mentioned the fact her money allowed him to retire immediately after the wedding and spend each afternoon at the Cricket Club playing Dominoes and Bridge before coming home snookered just in time to pour their five o’clock cocktails after she had arrived home from work.

Humanity fractured and diverged across colonized space. Those who remained on Earth to weather a turbulent climate were wholly unique and different from those who settled upon the moon many generations ago. The ebb of evolution adapted to these new climates. Languages changed, and words that seemed so important on Earth disappeared on lunar soil, where they proved to be worthless.

This nightmare repeated each night before Mom and Dad left for New York City. The same set of headlights shined from the car as it roared down the alley. I hid in the same place in each dream, heard the same noises and felt the presence of the menacing figure who found me just as I woke up.

He gets up, walks with purpose towards the abomination, and swings his right hand at the hapless meerkat, which catches the head of the lion, and brings the whole thing crashing down. The first thought that comes into Lolo’s mind is triumphant, “This is what 2-yr old boys do!” – he hugs Pepe tightly.

I had to write my thesis. I also, had to negotiate Advait and his new paramour, Shivani, a light eyed girl from Delhi, where he was also from, revelling in their new romance, in the same hostel. They spoke in tongues I didn’t understand. I lived on the 9th floor. Advait was on the 11th floor. Shivani was on the 7th floor. “You’re in purgatory,” Tanvi would tease, but no matter the support she’d offered, a darkness had started taking over me, like a virus slowly creeping into the flesh and subtly altering my chemistry.

I had read about the car progressively learning more about its owner’s personal life, speech patterns, likes, and dislikes. At the same time, its AI was constantly updated via its internet connection and learning from other cars. Not just about driving but about other drivers, and their personalities. The net effect is behavior that is incredibly human-like. By now I was wondering, what would happen if I gave it a shower cap?

He leaned the small of his back against the side of her ship and looked out towards the unusually calm waves. Those brief calms were becoming more frequent, never mind the storms that followed. Shuddering, she hoped to make it to the center ring before a Rime touched her at sea.

They reach FYE and there’s a circle. Voices chiming high and low, a couple of security guards are on the ground. A boy, too, with his hands behind his back. Expensive action figures are strewn about, still in their boxes. He’s grunting and cursing as a guard has a knee in his back. Another is ringing the police, fumbling for handcuffs. Jordy sees it all over the crowd while Iris stands on tiptoes.

His house smelled like home. I imagined myself pregnant with Ron’s baby, taking the baby to my purple house, feeling like I would always be there for her now. Would it really be so bad? A job at Safeway, shacked up with Ron, not asking too much.

He had a nice smile, friendly and innocent-seeming. She wanted to tell him about her mother—she was exploding with it. She shouldn’t be here and neither should he. The universe shouldn’t be continuing without Bee-Bee. But instead, she nodded to him, trying to look normal and not ripped in half like a cheap pair of pants.

But I didn’t move. Lane certainly wasn’t going to. Instead, we waited for Dave to calm down and pass the giant spliff around. After his eyes turned dull and we sensed his will begin to sap he let us have our turn on the joint. We puffed away and then sank into a dense haze, dipping in and out of consciousness, forgetting everything. It was hard to argue this wasn’t the solution to everything.

Frankie’s (estranged) sister was a guest on the talk show of the 90s, the one with its own studio, the one where cars were bestowed on the audience like party favors, claiming she’d witnessed ritual murders. Frankie ponders, with irony, how he and his other siblings could have missed such memorable events. Repression, most likely.