Star Crossed by Maura Stanton The recycle center turned out to be a huge warehouse at the edge of town. As my purchaser walked with me to the office, I noticed big metal bins full of robot parts. One bin seemed to be all heads, hundreds of heads, maybe thousands, some...
Nested Skins by Ben Reed Roger and I were at the beach when the fog came in. We had just finished eating. Everyone on the sand stopped what they were doing to marvel at the density and opacity of the fog, and how quickly the white mist rolled toward us over the water....
Our Squid Mother by E. Ce Miller Our little sister made the discovery that summer. It wasn’t surprising that she would be the first to find out—the only one of us who still climbed into our mother’s lap like Ma was a piece of furniture instead of a woman,...
Smile-5 by Nicholas Brasco I meet McMurphy at the Boom Lift, the one parked next to Building A, at 6:35 a.m. Management’s instructions. We shake hands in greeting, and his big mitt is all rough and chapped, just like his face, leaving my fingers feeling crushed. He...
Piedmonters by Mason Boyles I’m trying to walk myself to sleep when someone stumbles out from the dumpsters behind our apartment and scares the melatonin out of me. “Mothersucker,” she says: Jaylin. I check my reflection in the tint of a Hummer to...
Save Me by Laura Shaine Cunningham The day that we moved in, the man who lived alone in 7A, who would have been our immediate neighbor, jumped from his balcony balustrade. Kit and I, carrying small, breakable objects that Kit refused to entrust to the movers, were...
