My legs tremble as I stand on the platform at the fringe of the sea. The wheel-mounted cubicle was drawn across the sand for me to change within. As my first venture in the bathing-machine, it feels much as any strange event; a tentative toe in new waters. I blink against the salt-sting, straighten my …
I wake to a star bouncing on the bed. The alarm on my phone sounds, the car horn alert. The star startles to the ceiling, its four points bursting into five. I silence the ooga ooga and the star descends and sways, a hypnotic astral pendulum. It darts off one revolution and hovers above the …
Hello, my name is Carriage Number 78464. How am I looking today? That’s what it says on the sign over there. Have you seen it? I think it’s supposed to present a friendly face to the customers, help them to feel relaxed, at home. It’s not a very friendly name though, is it? They could …
There are many ways to shave. In or out of the shower. With or against the grain. Standing beside your dad as you are initiated into the world of adult responsibilities, or dripping foam onto the keyboard of your laptop as a burly man on YouTube guides your strokes, wishing you had the kind of …
They say that you know something’s right by the way it feels. So when I pick up this can at a stranger’s house on a Friday night, I know it’s the one for me. The can opens up easily. It doesn’t try too hard to be sweet, but isn’t at all flat. I’m naturally drawn …
The groom will puff circles of smoke above the heads of Imran and Madien, raising a cloud that’ll add to our fuggy minds as we, Jay’s friends from University, an all-boys group, will stare ahead into an imagined horizon. Jay’s bride-to-be will be missing, not even a shoe left behind, and a house full of …
I’ll follow the canal down 104 South. I’m leaving my ghosts in Waverly. I’ll note the things that the others choose to miss: The school bus deep in Farmer Ben’s lot, out back by the trees and the frozen soy fields. The engine compartment gutted, entrails spilling, windows blown out, soot stains on the body …
The night I couldn’t find my mother’s grave, I cried into my collar. The cemetery had grown, bloated in a way that only spirits could tolerate. Mortals, they’d have complained about the hassle, all of that dust and noise. I noticed how new stretches of road had been paved, and how fresh blades of grass …
During Travis’s second week at ShopRite Cunningham asks him to clean the milk case. Cunningham watches from beside the cottage cheese: Travis with his sleeves rolled up, forearms rippling as he wipes down each section of shelving. Everything smells like sour milk, but when Cunningham wheels out a cart of low-fat small curd he’s …
Sorry Boss Man, It’s Time to Go by Timothy Boudreau Read More »
My sister was working the breakfast shift, so I decided to talk with God. He had his usual booth, facing away from the window, so I slid onto the sticky vinyl seat opposite him and poured sugar into my coffee. The gun felt heavy in my jacket pocket, just inches from my hand. I wondered …
Fi turns the lights off to call her father. She sits next to her unlit lamp, she adores the black shade with gold birds sitting on branches, and the slender stem with a round of crystal near the top, curved like a ball-gown. The lamp is the only piece of her in this house, the …
The only cloud in the sky looks like a cotton ball unraveling. The day is hot, but there is a slight breeze, warm like a whispered breath against her cheek, a relief compared to the humidity of the past week. Heavy air doesn’t suit her. She’s done with heaviness of any kind. She wants things …