We Don’t See The Neighbors Anymore by Abbie Barker
The yellow gambrel across the street is shut – the garage doors and side doors, the windows, the blinds. The temperatures rise and the ground thaws, but there is no…
The yellow gambrel across the street is shut – the garage doors and side doors, the windows, the blinds. The temperatures rise and the ground thaws, but there is no…
“Mom! Mom, look what’s happened!” Lily taps my hand. I’m slow coming to as she tries to tug me out of bed. Since my husband Flint, Lily’s pa, was fired…
The old man took his daughter and grandson on a ride through the park, past the church, and around his old high school. He regaled them with stories of football,…
It’s bonfire night and you’re side by side on the Ferris wheel watching the fireworks boom across the bay. Without saying a word, they turn to face you. You catch…
Since the first day of seventh grade, Aaron had been a runner. He loved the freedom of the winding roads, the slice of the cool wind, the rhythm of his…
At the pool, Mike told his daughter Katy, who was eight, to come into the men’s changing rooms with him and Joe, so they could all have a quick wee…
Because Michael is lardy the other kids call him Michael Fatley. Or just Fatley. He hates that and won’t hang out with them. He’s ok. He lives next door, and…
“Women and children first! Women and children first!” A brandy snifter in one hand, a cigar in the other, I am alone as I watch people rush about on deck…
The discomforts are plentiful: it’s dark of course, crowded too. And it smells, like a dozen unwashed bodies. Pavel is limiting his breathing to avoid as much of the stench…
Charlene and I had known each other for so long that by the time we were in high school, our attempts at being a couple seemed incestuous. But we promised…
A bony finger stands erect and aflame amidst whorls and swirls of frosting. The world’s most morbid birthday candle. Strawberry, probably. Maybe pink champagne, to be fancy. Either way, 300g…
Ben sits in a room that smells of iodine. A doctor in beige chinos and a checked shirt asks him serious, gentle questions: “Are you safe, Ben?” He closes his…