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Jack London, “To Build a Fire”
A man and his Husky are traveling the Yukon Trail on a very cold day. (from To Build a Fire) As he turned to go on, he spat speculatively. There was a sharp, explosive crackle that startled him. He...
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Guy de Maupassant, “The Terror”
A man gets married so he doesn’t have to spend his nights alone. (from The Dark Side: Tales of Terror and the Supernatural) It began last year, in a very strange manner on a damp autumn evening. When...
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Laura Kasischke, “Mona”
A single mother makes a disturbing discovery while snooping in her daughter’s room. (from If a Stranger Approaches You) Abigail was a good daughter, an A student, had never been in any trouble… But...
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Jamie Quatro, “1.7 to Tennessee”
An elderly woman attempts to deliver a letter to the post office. (from I Want to Show You More) Sometimes she forgot and said she didn’t know where the sweater came from, and when she said this, it...
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Jamie Quatro, “Here”
A man has to find a new way to live after the death of his wife. (from I Want to Show You More) Those last days it was his job to squirt dropper after dropper of morphine down her throat. The hospice...
View ArticleChristine Sneed, “Alex Rice Inc.”
A college professor’s world is upset when a famous man enrolls in her class. (from portraits of a few of the people I’ve made cry) She is sweating and nervous and giddily irritated. Seeing Alex Rice...
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Harold Brodkey, “The State of Grace”
A boy has an isolated, impoverished childhood in St. Louis. (from First Love and Other Sorrows) So I was thirteen and Edward was seven and he wanted me to love him, but he was not old enough or strong...
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Jean Thompson, “Smash”
A man gets into a car accident on his way to work. (from Do Not Deny Me) I wondered if the woman who hit me was At Fault, in the way these things are reckoned, hitting from behind being one of the...
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Kevin Brockmeier, “The Year of Silence”
After silence overtakes a city, the people begin to miss noise. (from Best American Short Stories 2008) That the city’s whole immense carousel of sound should stop at one and the same moment was...
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Heather Sellers, “It’s Water, It’s Not Going to Kill You”
After her husband threatens to leave, a woman drives the family car into the Atlantic Ocean. (from Georgia Under Water) When the breakers hit, the car nosed up, then down. Angling down, it lost...
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Hannah Brooks-Motl, “The River”
A prepubescent girl surprises herself with her actions. (from Ninth Letter Spring/Summer 2013) In your memories of childhood, aren’t you mute, and isn’t this odd? I can never remember what I said, or...
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Cate Kennedy, “What Thou and I Did, Till We Loved”
A woman sends her lover out on a quick errand and she’s hit by a taxi. (from Dark Roots) Every day I go to get off at the wrong floor. I keep forgetting. She’s in rehab now. They’ve given her six weeks...
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Cate Kennedy, “A Pitch Too High for the Human Ear”
A man finds himself without the means to connect to his wife and children. (from Dark Roots) I watch people sometimes, wonder how they can walk around with the weight of what they know. Wonder if they...
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Susan Steinberg, “Court”
A woman remembers the year her parents divorced. (from Hydroplane: Fictions) My father went, Crazy. My mother went, Crazy. They thought I couldn’t see the fight. But I saw his hand flash through the...
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Jamie Quatro, “Better to Lose an Eye”
Lindsey, Mama, and Nona go to a pool party in their new handicapped-accessible van. (from I Want to Show You More) They drove to the party in the new van. Nona liked driving it. She said the van was a...
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Jean Thompson, “Wilderness”
A single woman goes to visit an old college friend and her family for Thanksgiving. (from Do Not Deny Me) “Did you guys have a fight or something?” Anna thought this must be what it was like to be a...
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Claire Vaye Watkins, “The Past Perfect, The Past Continuous, The Simple Past”
A young Italian traveler loses his friend in the Nevada desert. (from Battleborn) Day seven. At the motel Michele lies staring at the untouched bed across from him. He hasn’t slept in days, not really....
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Lydia Peelle, “The Still Point”
A man running from his past joins up with a traveling carnival. (from Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing: Stories) Last night, I left the bus late, ended up at the grandstand, where most of the...
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Ellen Gilchrist, “Victory Over Japan”
A third-grader befriends a boy who was bitten by a squirrel in order to write an article about him for the school paper. (from Victory Over Japan) When I was in the third grade I knew a boy who had to...
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Steve Almond, “Skull”
A guy has a few too many beers and reveals a secret to his friend. (from The Evil B.B. Chow and other stories) I remembered now what had always creeped me out about Zach, which is that he had a...
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