Fiction

Firewoman

Firewoman

♦
Winter 2025 ♦
The old house wanted to burn. It was fully on fire when the Markee Volunteer Fire Department’s only truck, driven by Eb Peters, pulled up on the road in front of it. The truck was twenty-years-old, and we could use a new one, but we couldn’t afford it. The Markee…
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A Ghost in Flight

A Ghost in Flight

♦
Fall 2023 ♦
2005 When the kid stumbled through the oaks onto his property, Bruce almost dropped his shovel. The boy followed Bruce’s retriever down the hill toward the cabin, the dog’s coat glowing golden in the sun. When the kid looked up and froze, Bruce felt a melting sensation, something like dry…
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Relief, Relief

Relief, Relief

♦
Winter/Spring 2023 ♦
She’d heated the ham in the fellowship hall that morning. It had been that blue time of the morning, and the swamp in front of the church was still chirping with frogs. She had let herself into the side door of the church—it was a vinyl-sided building built like a…
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Little Piles of Change

Little Piles of Change

♦
Winter 2022 ♦
Colly was having a pint with Pat in Kavanagh’s after work. Pat had won twenty euro on a scratcher that morning and Colly knew it had been burning a hole in his pocket all day, that he’d be gunning for a pint. Colly was happy not to be going home…
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Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet

♦
Summer 2021 ♦
If Jaya had been paying closer attention, the tea wouldn’t have been necessary. It had seemed like an extreme measure to take, relevant only to those with severe anxiety instead of distracted suburban women like herself. Yet how mild were its effects now, just the amplification of these animal sounds…
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The Husband Tree

The Husband Tree

♦
Summer 2021 ♦
My daughter is working, early, in the yard. I hear her footsteps from my bedroom, my windows overlooking the teardrop of grass and the ring of hostas and ferns, the Japanese Maple on the very edge of my property. It’s been this way all summer. She’s left her job, moved…
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For What It’s Worth

For What It’s Worth

♦
Fall 2020 ♦
Occasionally someone would stop Elmer Newby in a store and ask him why in the world he’d help the government run people off their land. Elmer always clenched his teeth and stiffened his shoulders. His cheeks turned red. “Hell, I didn’t decide this. That was some fool in Washington,” he…
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A Great Distance

A Great Distance

♦
Fall 2020 ♦
,
for Daniel Wallace When she was six years old, she spent two nights lost in the woods. Her mother and father had decided to camp in the Smoky Mountains for the weekend, leaving Raleigh on a June morning and arriving at the park entrance in mid-afternoon, just in time to…
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