Most discussed stories

My Drifter Doppelganger

10771077 views22 comments11 fav

Looming ahead was another polite suburban party at which, after a couple of pops, I'd say something that embarrasses my wife in front of her girlfriends. Or so she claims.

A mere second is enough...

931931 views22 comments22 favs

This was why the man on the bicycle was still in time to turn his head to her because he thought it was his sister who lived in California, because she wore the same jacket and in his inattentiveness almost ran over another cyclist.

Downbound A

868868 views22 comments22 favs

Fall came early that year. The edge in the air wasn't just the cold, raw wind cutting down the street — the unity and collective embrace briefly shared after September 11th had faded. The weight from…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 64

907907 views22 comments11 fav

Mulvihill suspected, but could not prove, that the connection to all three murders and the three men was a painting

I Can’t Wait To Develop Patience, But

690690 views22 comments22 favs

And they let the angels out at twilight, the dark twins of bats, and their troubled undersides. Never were the bats so disturbed. Never until now has true evil been so see-through, and clear.

The Trials

17101710 views22 comments33 favs

In reenactments of the pressing to death of Giles Corey, Walter’s friends stacked pillows onto his chest while he defied his inquisitors.

The first sense of desire

891891 views22 comments11 fav

I want to own you, even if it is only for a few moments or a few hours, but it will not be worth it unless for that brief span of time I know that the only purpose of your existence is to be a woman whom I own.

Zero Gravity

748748 views22 comments22 favs

Here is a blank space soft and white like paper extended indefinitely.

-And Lurking Behind Quasar 3C295 . . .

14381438 views22 comments22 favs

“Let’s see that great big telescope of yours,” she exhaled hotly, “I want to grind your lenses!” The doctoral candidate dutifully stood between her and his massive telescope so her hands would encounter some instrumentation with no optical components.

Tuning Pegs

14411441 views22 comments22 favs

Her face had that strange preserved quality Maybelle saw in many aging Boomer women — like an old toy never removed from its packaging.

Harbinger

10561056 views22 comments22 favs

Smoke from the oil lamp traced the wall. It gave Nana something to read.

Misunderstood, Meet Cynical.

10911091 views22 comments11 fav

The blaring scream from my alarm clock suffices as my wake-up call. It disrupts me from my dream state that I so rarely get the privilege to experience any more. I've always loathed that alarm clock, so I turn it off in the most sensibly aggressive manner I know how: just…

Memory Theater

838838 views22 comments11 fav

In a space capsule he is an astronaut. In his spacesuit he is dressed like chewing gum.

Black Wheat, 1

642642 views22 comments11 fav

They left their great need behind when they were taken out of the country They live without thought of that blood They do not respond to anything that calls to it They are shallow They feed on image (alone) Blood does not shake their heart

Five Million Yen: Chapter 2

10741074 views22 comments11 fav

Ben exited the uptown Broadway Local at 103rd and oriented himself.

Pigs Fly

981981 views22 comments22 favs

You are rounded just the way the mountain is, out the window. The sun sets on both of you now. Three of you, I should say: the mountain, and you, and little Frank, who is currently batting my ear because he doesn't want to be named Frank but it's for your dead father,…

Out of That Bed 1963

14401440 views22 comments33 favs

My father's hands were huge. His left knuckles gashed as a kid when he rode his bike too close to a moving train. When his fingers fisted around a glass, the scarred joints bulged from his grip like blind eyes.

Literal-Minded Parents Seek Irony-Free School Zones

964964 views22 comments00 favs

“I don't cotton much to some of the johnnie-come-lately's we get around here,” says Graham Buchter. “They're a bunch of talkers—they wear me out.”

bric a brac road

10621062 views22 comments11 fav

bric a brac road

A Hundred Feet

859859 views22 comments11 fav

Why I roamed these flats, choir-Like floors of a century forgivenAnd wedded in an XXL gownIs beyond us. Give me something extra, please. This Town rides in like a school bus.

The Queue

11001100 views22 comments11 fav

She persisted. “How long have we been here?” A note of anger crept into his voice. “How long? How long? Why …, why ….” He swallowed hard, realized he had forgotten.

Lime Grove in the Snow

973973 views22 comments11 fav

Up ahead I saw clusters of people standing silently under the trees. They seemed to be just waiting there. More than 100 people lined up in the cold and dark, not moving.

Die for the sunset

872872 views22 comments33 favs

we get back to discussing how long a year is although no one talks about what a woman is or a man and they are just there. rocking chairs rock. sitting and spinning, just like spider’s spin waiting for him – to make a coffee.

Event Particle

569569 views22 comments11 fav

Together they explore availabilities

rag water echo

959959 views22 comments11 fav

It was in the good and strange middle spring and the rain kept announcing itself on the doorsteps and the railings of the town. As it bounced off of infrastructure and the top of eighteen wheeled trucks, rather than die little deaths, the drops found their way into the…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 43

11161116 views22 comments11 fav

Ben was in no mood for games. His ribs hurt and his eye was painful. He would have to tell this girl, who had flicked her tongue in his ear and who did not sound like Sophie, to get lost

A little bit of babysitting

941941 views22 comments11 fav

Roy Williams was his real name. It had been for the last 15 years. Since retiring from the Firm he’d lived innocuously in an apartment near the Old City walls of Dubrovnik doing the occasional quick job for them. You never entirely retired from the Firm.

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: Prologue

728728 views22 comments22 favs

My first and so far only visit to my homeland of Prague was first described to me by a tourist guidebook, which laid out many of the fundamentals one must follow while travelling there. It was pointed out, for instance, that we would be “unlikely to enc

Chinese Whispers

8181 views22 comments22 favs

.

Biden Buys Off Brazil

539539 views22 comments11 fav

Biden Buys off Brazil, Kenya, Italy, Spain, Australia, and scores of other countries to exaggerate the effects of Covid-19 someone's racist coworker has just reported.