“I need to talk to the person who saw me yesterday. I think her name was Kristin. Yes, it was Kristin. I need to talk to her now.” The woman at the counter was firm, her anger restrained. The receptionist tried to explain that Kristin was with another client at…
Anne sat, shoulder-hunched, in the lobby of the Eye Doctor. Tall and lanky, she seemed folded in on herself like a deck chair, her big eyes roving the gentle gray and blue islands of empty chairs and side tables. She had never been to the Eye Doctor before. It had…
“I went with Jenny to that new coffee shop on the south side of town today.” Brad made a noncommittal sound. “It’s over by that hole that opened up and swallowed the nail salon. It was on the news.” Brad looked up from his phone. “You should see it,” Megan…
It existed among the accumulated knowledge of man, sparking between reams of history and tomes of science. It was, itself, a chain of data, a collection of phrases, equations, arrays, and definitions. Like a snake in the grass, or a child in a store, or a wind through the leaves,…
Old Man Vincilli had been old for a long time even before he moved out of the city into the hills. There, in his cabin, it was quiet and lonely. At night, he could even see the stars despite the light from the city. The years passed. He walked the…
“You want to do it now?” “Why not?” One reason: With Christmas approaching, the halls of Oakdale Mall were teeming with happy shoppers carrying full wallets. But today’s shoppers were fickle. Any sort of disturbance would drive them online. They would probably never return. The person in front of Assistant…
Jared had called the main office about the woman in his apartment three times, but it insisted that it was not the corporation’s problem. The PhaseCyclers(TM) had been certified by the government (federal and state), and the last inspection two months ago recorded all readings at optimal levels. Also, as…
I understand in that moment. She isn’t a monster. That is a lie from the gods, a deception initiated by Hera. Medusa is no monster. She is a woman trapped in the webs of those who envy her beauty. For the gods prize beauty above justice or mercy, and it…
Simon Alexander was the sort of man who left the library with a volume of Pushkin, Churchill’s The Gathering Storm, Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 10, A Brief History of Time, and “G” is for Gumshoe, and returned them a week later, each read cover to cover. The library could not keep…
There was a second sun once, a pale sister who mused quietly over the earth when her older sister sank into her bed. You see the evening star there? It’s about the only one you can see anymore, unless you drive for miles and hike deep into the wilderness that…
I used to open the fortune cookies at Chinese restaurants just like everyone else. You know, you read the fortune, if it even is a fortune anymore and not just some pithy bit of half-wisdom. “You will succeed in business,” you know, that’s how fortunes used to read, and you…
You are alive. You are no longer young, but you are not yet old. You are at the height of your physical power; your mind is sharp, and the flightiness of adolescence has faded. You are working, you are rising, you are investing. Your spouse is beautiful. You love her…