Things really pick up after Ukezie transfers to West Boylston. Suddenly Coach is like RUN, and instead of half-assing around the bleachers, we RUN RUN RUN. Then Coach goes JUMP, and instead of hands-in-sweatpants, we JUMP JUMP JUMP, still a good ten feet behind Ukezie, who goes through every drill like buttering toast. The first […]
Fiction 78
Anne Opotowsky: Seven Trains
Piece removed as per the author’s request.
Jono Mischot: Life Coach, Dead Coach
When I heard the news, my fingers automatically dialed her number. I didn’t have time to think about it. If I had, I wouldn’t have called. “Yeah,” she said. She sounded tired. “Our Life Coach killed himself last night,” I said. “Who? Constantine?” “Yes, Constantine. How many life coaches do you know?” “A few actually. […]
Ted Kehoe: Hand Out
When her mother’s mind deteriorated, Martha began making things up. Her mother suffered from Stage Five Alzheimer’s. She was getting worse. Martha had gotten books. She talked with the doctor. Not much was known about the disease. She read the same information again and again. Facts came to her as she rode the bus or […]
Rosalie Morales Kearns: The Pirate’s Wife
His Humour of going a pyrating proceeded from a Disorder in his Mind, . . . occasioned by some Discomforts he found in a married State. –Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724) News travels its own paths. The king, let’s say, signs an edict, ring-laden fingers drawing quill across parchment, it’s bound […]
Patrick Crerand: Seaworthy
Miss Lehman had just finished her lunch when Franka Cattiace reported that a bee the size of a ham had swooped down the grounds of Saint Christopher Elementary, lifted Scot Aker by the ear and carried him away for good. The post-recess funk had yet to descend on the children who seemed to vibrate with […]