Among the Stars

My granddaughter, Ray, is obsessed with constellations. She can find them all, even the obscure, complicated ones like Berenice's hair and the keel of the Argonauts’ ship.

Love Songs for Ghosts

The torch singer at the end of the world has found a working cassette player. It is nestled amongst other dust-covered treasures in a Chinatown rummage shop.

Mothers-in-Law

The Divorcee zone of the marriage market was always the sparsest, but Li went everyday all the same. Tucked under her arm were a tape roll and extra copies of the notice for her son…

Storytime?

There are so many details in this print that one could get lost staring at it. And I have. But I want to help you avoid getting taken in and distracted by the picture’s surface level dramas. Allow me to point out where the real drama exists.

This is Our City

I materialize in bed. I glimmer and stand out. My blinkers are on and my heart is warm. He is my phantom limb. I become his tiny little curled up set of legs when we mate.

May You / Live In / Interesting Times

Will sits and sketches a robot onto loose-leaf on his bottom bunk before dinner. Dinner is PB&J if there’s still some left from lunch. PB & syrup if not. Half a sleeve of saltines with that, and maybe a cup of watered-down cherry Flavor Aid.

The Days Last Longer the Further Away You Are

On Mars, there is no one left, but we still think they can hear us. The delay lets us live in moments where everything is alright. It’s only when we get no response and get no response and continue to get no response that we begin to understand.

Bonus Scene from Year of the Buffalo

Scott walked into his boss’s office. Stood for a beat, waiting for Ed to ask what he needed while Ed stared at his computer, waiting for Scott to start.

“I think I need a new chair,” Scott said.

I Have to Leave So That I Can Return

I am always leaving, and I want them to be prepared. Before summer suddenly turns into Fall, before all the leaves have hit the ground, I make sure I have somewhere else to go. I have to leave so that I can return, so that I can make it through the bitter cold months of winter.

Farm Reports

My grandparents have a family farm outside of Wichita. I help shuck corn and find worms wriggling in the freshly-picked ears when I pull their silk blanket off. There are warm snakes under freshly-laid eggs, curing around their oval prizes.

Soon You’ll Be Just Like Us

Wednesday, November nineteenth, the morning I’m scheduled to see my new face. Alice comes to my room, and for the first time, leaves the door unlocked—in fact, wide open.

Two Knocks

Teddy stayed home from school that day, even though her mother had to go to the office. Teddy didn’t feel like going to school, and she said, again and again, I’m sick. I don’t feel well. This was something Teddy had discovered, that repetition could sway parents. This was the new power she had.

Internet Review from a Vampire

Vescelaus slammed the book shut. He’d never been so disgusted in all his life—which was saying something. Vescelaus was immortal.

The Parlor

There’s a police car parked in the street outside Belinda’s house. Belinda can see it from the sagging living room couch where she has just finished her after-school snack–peanut butter and raspberry jam on toast, again.

Vocabulary Lesson

It’s too late to back out now. Already her son sits at the kitchen counter, legs swinging from the barstool, waiting for her. His index cards, all the words his teacher has assigned for this week’s vocabulary quiz, sprawl in front of him like a dissected dictionary.