We stop at the gas station in the desert, the last one for a hundred miles. Kaia grabs a Coke from the refrigerator case, twists the cap, drinks half of it right there with the door still open, the artificial chill rolling over her sweaty skin. I stand in the snack aisle and watch her. […]
You have always been at this birthday party. You will always be at this birthday party. Much like parenthood, the birthday party extends to fill every corner of your waking thoughts. There is a nine-year-old boy chugging root beer straight from the bottle and a six-year-old girl coloring in a heart for Shrinky Dinks. Your […]
as composed by Ashkernas amid the ruins of New Haven
I slam the car door with more force than I mean to. It’s childish, but I don’t care; I want Ashkernas to see how angry I am. But my sister pretends not to notice. “Don’t worry about the supplies, Herkinal!” Ash calls with the false cheer she adopts when I am upset. “I’ll get Haba […]
Thig crìoch air an t-saoghal ach mairidh gaol is ceòl. Come the end of the world, love and music will endure. She sits by the water’s edge, listening for a song to prove that point. She came out here to the edge of Loch Fada to see…something. All she sees is water and hills. […]
We chased the sirens for the seaspray, for the slick tang of salt on our tongues when we stood at the prow of the ship. We each christened her a different name, and the carving on the hull twisted and reshaped depending on who took the helm. Anna for young Rose; Hera when Molly gripped […]
She held her breath as the demon struck the match, but nothing stranger than the smell of sulfur rose to meet her; it lit the candles like anyone, left to right, and placed the shammes in the center of the small brass menorah when it was done. They glowed quietly and a little ironically on […]
Episode 1: Burning Doubts Watch Sam burn. Or sort of burn. Well, more like light up, then burn. But only his head. Whatever. Sam’s trying not to focus on the things he can’t control. Like the twenty-four people sitting in front of him, watching him impassively. Or that he’s underdressed for his audition. Or that […]
(Content note: references to childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, pregnancy loss.) Beni can always guess which ones are going to be the most expensive. If the girl had sprung for the keepsake rig—the plastic liner and the marbleized cardboard longbox to avoid creasing the bodice—that one was going to be pricey. It was also […]
The plan was, Elena would meet me for a swim and I’d stay one night in her family cabin before continuing on to Canada, alone. I told her I was hitchhiking through Duluth and up Highway 61, which was only half a lie; the route was real, if not the means of transportation. I’d been […]
(Content note: descriptions of historical euthanasia, use of racial and misogynistic slurs.) The Miner’s Union got here first, in 1903, when they blasted the tunnel through the schist. They came from Colorado and Pennsylvania, from Ireland and Italy, Scotland and Canada; they came to work inside the mountain, one hundred eighty feet below sunlight. […]