Short Stories

14 MINThe doctors had told him to be prepared for strange dreams and even nightmares, but such a slight warning had not prepared him for this. He woke, first, in the recovery room, so called, which…

3 MINThe car lot shimmered like a pastel apparition, rows of soft pinks, mint greens, and baby blues stretching beneath a sky that felt too big for this world. Metallic balloons swayed at the dealership’s entrance,…

4 MINThe sight of the raven-haired woman standing in the street at the Metro bus stop interrupts the replay in Christina’s head. The woman wears a vermillion polyester shell, matching pleated skort, nude pantyhose, and white…

6 MINThere were bamboo sheets to beat the heat and canopy curtains to ward off mosquitoes, so you’d think there’d be a coffee maker. I pulled on a long-sleeved shirt, and announced I was heading to the…

10 MINHal picked up his espresso at the counter and headed to the small, outdoor garden behind the café. San Francisco is full of these little neighborhood coffee houses. Shabby little places, a few flowers and…

11 MINWhen I was a young girl, I was convinced that one day, I would fall in love. There was no question in the matter. It was a fact. A truth of life evident from every…

12 MINDelisia had braved rush hour traffic to pick up her sister at the airport, navigating the congested access road filled with anxious drivers and a constant stream of cars, as overhead, wide-body aircraft roared their…

8 MINSpectra’s hands shake as she opens the mysterious envelope. She nearly ruined it with the dirt from her shoes. It is on the floor as she enters the Victorian flat she shares with her aunt…

24 MINWhen I was a child, my father taught me a trick about how to make yourself wake up at a certain time if you didn’t have an alarm clock handy or even how to remember…

8 MINGuinevere knew exactly what her breaking point had been in her wretched marriage to Charlie, which had seemed like salvation then only to end up like a curse. Girls who come from bad family situations…