It happened like this. Sometime after summer, my dad set fire to a field. He set fire to the field behind the barn. Then he argued with my mum while the men from the Bank hung labels on things but the fire got out of control and the barn caught fire and exploded. It just …
When I was 16 I asked out the most gorgeous girl in the superstore. She was behind the deli counter in a little paper-boat hat, blonde plaited hair twirling out from each side and down past her shoulders. I felt too young and too stupid, but I said one time as I passed with a …
i. The Sky Kingdom My people call our home the Sky Kingdom. When I drive the herd between the mountains, I feel as though I am walking next to God. Sometimes, He speaks to me. Other times, He shows me things. Today, I have angered Him. ii. ‘Little Fish’ My name is Tuma, and I …
Saturday morning, and I’m taking my breakfast at the same diner I always have. Time was when Boots, Ed and me would trawl in here regular, early morning red-eyed from a night driving back from a gig we’d done upstate. These days I tend to come here on my own. There’s only the one server …
There was a tune in my head, every moment when I think of that time, Summer Song by Ronnie Foster, imagine the sound is coming out of the centre of your brain, an earworm like the kids say, present every occasion that I walked through the little university complex, the streetfront campus pubs, the concourse, …
My sharpness is smoothed out at the edges. White fog has seeped through the tent lining, swirled around the fleece of my hood, into my grey matter. As my tent rocks, the mercury level drops a fraction more. In the sideways sleet I can’t figure out how far north of the main party I am. …
January We wore shorts and believed the world was dying. You showed me the tooth you lost in a fight. “I can stick it back in,” you said. Your sweaty hand wrapped mine like a glove. February Your dad said you weren’t eating enough real food. I slept on your floor and whistled Desperado. You …
“Ever since the election, business has been in the toilet.” Ursula waved her arm toward the convention of empty seats that occupied the delicatessen’s interior. “That damn Lend Me a Fiver Party is killing us.” “What’s the problem? You haven’t loaned them a fiver yet?” “It’s Prime Minister Shitonabun. We always name a sandwich after …
A Hot Dog Is the Pinnacle of Culinary Sophistication by Caleb Echterling Read More »
Soomaya drew a translucent finger across the micro-fine sheet of slate. The lines and figures on the page sprang up in rolling formation, magnified by her vitreous flesh. She absorbed the combination of artistry and structural calculus through nerves that recorded visual stimuli from every square inch of transparent skin. Passing over a particularly beautiful …
The little girl on the swing looks sad. Her mother is speaking into a ‘phone, its blue glow lighting up her drawn-in eyebrows and cheap mascara. She’s gesturing wildly with her hands, arguing, cursing. I’m embarrassed for her, for the little girl, who sits waiting for a push, dangling skinny legs from denim cut-offs and …
We have the same eyes. Kind of peanut-shaped and poked quite far into our heads. It’s one of my favourite nearly-identical things about us. Mum says Lou’s are hazel. Mine are slightly muddy puddle. We have the same Mum and Dad, and the same birthday, even though she came an hour earlier, but definitely different …
Cast In Order Of Appearance by Helen Victoria Anderson Read More »
A stubborn man wearing cartoonish golf shorts walked down a concrete path that ran parallel to a river that’s only a river by name. It’s not the lyrical Ohio or majestic Mississippi. He believed it fell somewhere between a stagnant, neglected motel pool and a grease puddle under a wrecked Taurus in a junkyard. Joshua …