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Why We Lived
Beauty and Power, Jini Park If I had known it was Julie calling my name across the fluorescence of the supermarket, I wouldn’t have turned around. “Maurine,” the voice called, again. I turned and saw her waddling towards me from the other end of the aisle. “God, it’s been ages!” she panted,…
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Artistic
Dripping, Eric Fram I used to cry over pizza because it smelled too strong. The air would rise from the plate until it pressed against my face like a wet towel. The smells of tomato and oregano would merge, blending into a hot cloud that hovered around my head and seeped…
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Where the Weed Decays, or an Elegy for Those with Pathetic Adoration
Still Air, Shareefah Pereira After Vladimir Nabokov and his second greatest love affair | For Ms. K You’re forty-two years old and you don’t know how you got here. It’s 1:16 the morning of your own execution, you had beans on toast for dinner last night, you can still taste the soggy…
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How to Stop Playing With Dolls
Sweet Dreams, Hannah Elizabeth High Sit on the floor in the middle of the basement. It’s your very own play area, which makes it the greatest place. Spending enough hours down there makes you unaware of the rest of the world. It’s where no one focuses on what you’re doing. It’s just…
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A Box to Hold
Geodess, Eric Fram The Subaru Tetris–puzzle of suitcases and boxes was unyielding to the hat box that wasn’t shaped like a box. Shotgun was reserved for the fichus. Packed in on the sides were table cloths—lace for special occasions, gingham, laminated ones for crafts—no one had the heart to say were no longer needed…
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Albatross Alone
Untitled, Elise Ketch Some would say you’d get lonely out in the big darkness with not a soul on board except for the empty husks of the dead. Marty Corpus would say that they’d be wrong. Of course, though, it must be noted that Captain Corpus was a different sort of man. The hold…
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Two Years and Two Months
Beauty After the Storm, Rae Clickenbeard The clock on the stove blinks 12:00a.m., but I know that it’s actually 4:52p.m. I’ve been meaning to reset the clock since the electricity was shut off temporarily a month ago. “Put your tights on, girls.” I don’t have to yell, they are only a thin wall…
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The Picasso House
Envy, Yulia Kenley I. We go to the “Picasso house” today. That’s what Aeden calls it anyway. It’s his family’s art museum, or what’s left of it. The main atrium, with the arched glass ceilings and the Roman pillars lining the matte white walls, is the only part that…
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Fruit Salad
Tomato Menace and Floral Rabbit, Jury St. Judge Oranges My father sits cross-legged on the edge of the couch, a plastic bowl in his lap and a knife in his hand. He peels and wedges two or three, portioning the pieces. Butter stands at his feet, eyes bright, trying…
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Sabratha
Holy, Nia Owen When Mother contracted the virus, she had a villa built in Sabratha, Libya, where Roman ruins and human bones lay desolate by the sea. Her doctor estimated that the virus would lie dormant in her body for a year before it entered the replicative phase, at which point it would…
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Chocolate
Conch, Alessandra Leo I’m a firm believer that it shouldn’t be cold without snow. There is no reason for the air outside to freeze in my lungs as I open the window and clamber out onto the fire escape in the blue-grey of the predawn morning. The metal railings burn my palms as I…
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Choices
Still Life in Blue and Yellow, Hayley Cormier, Boston College When they met they fell in love and decided to get married and all of a sudden they were in California. The successive events were short and definitive as knife wounds. His father was dying and needed someone to stay with him in…
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Mokita
Karla with Candle, Kreuzberg, Berlin, Samantha Metzner It is the worst at nights when everything is still and silent and when everything that is left is the whisper. In the darkness Harold cannot see my face; I feel the warmth of his body lying next to mine, and I am waiting for his…
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The Nudist on Pine Street
Untitled #2, Karl Rivera [Trigger Warning: Mentions of pedophilia] Mr. Walker didn’t give us a warning or indication of any kind when he decided to become a nudist. I had pulled into my driveway after a long day at the lab when Mr. Walker came strolling along, walking Rocky, his pit bull. What was more disorienting…
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How to Have an In-Vitro Fertilization Baby
The Not-So Virgin Mary, Julia Broeker First, make sure you’ve tried every possible method. Peer at Jenn’s list, an inventory of conception tricks longer than a wedding DJ’s playlist. Drink less caffeine. Check. Eat more fish. Check. Lay flat with feet raised after copulating. Check. Suspend like a vampire bat after copulating. Check. Spooning. Check.…
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Friday Morning
The Funnies, Justine Newman My father drank orange juice with extra pulp. I never cared for the texture, but it was the closest we could afford to fresh squeezed. In those days, he owned an auto repair shop. He opened late every Friday—no one asked him why, or what he did with his free mornings. I…
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Black Box Equinox
A New World of Light, Jacob Fisher As the lights dim and the curtains open, my heart beats its own symphony. I realize I am trapped. The only two seats left when we arrived were in the middle of a row, so not only would I have to clamber over the laps of…
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In the Dark
Radioactive Beach Hypothesis Illustration, Elly Call [Trigger Warning: Graphic depictions of injury, death, and cannibalism] Todd shouted as he felt the bike slam back down to the earth, pumping his legs to keep up his momentum. “I can’t believe no one goes here!” he shouted over his shoulder. “That’s what Ryan said!” Tucker shouted back,…
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Folding Blankets
Hand, Kaitlyn Fitzgerald [Trigger Warning: Brief mention of a stillbirth] Two bleary, beady eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them, the rounded head of the thing had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lip of which quivered and panted and dripped saliva. The whole creature squirmed…
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A Family
The Not-So Virgin Mary, Julia Broeker [Trigger Warning: Depictions of animal death] Cain Somewhere in the suburban-rural divide of New York, a family of four moved into a small house offset from the rest of town next to a set of train tracks. When a freight train came by in the first night, the entire…
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A Constellation is a Group of Stars That Forms a Pattern
Still Air, Shareefah Pereira Me It was the summer between jump ropes and lip gloss and Dad was a rarity and a giant, often asleep during the day or loud in the night, often not around without much explanation at all, and Lex was busy taking care of the…
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Foxglove
Captive, Cynthia Lee Esther watched as her mother poured gin into a martini glass. It was a morbid curiosity that fueled her, a morbid curiosity that pushed her gently on the back, urged her to examine this dark, mechanical dance. She focused hard on the glass bottle perched on the antique…