by Gabriella Herkert

What was I thinking? I should never have left my husband alone with the kids for two whole days. A forty-seven year old, Harvard-educated engineer couldn’t hope to hold his own against an eight-year old boy and six year old girl. Especially not when they were my progeny. He was outmanned and outgunned and I guilted myself for the twenty miles it took to return from a weekend of fellow women, mothers all, who had inconceivably managed to retreat for forty-eight hours of blissful adult interaction without a single melted crayon or runny nose.

(read on…)

by Tania Casselle

She stands on the table, spike heels digging into the white linen tablecloth. Someone turns the music up and she laughs, throws back her head, dark hair spiraling into the arch of her spine. Her hips coil and sink into the drumbeat, shiny emerald skirt snaking up tanned thighs as they edge wider. The table rocks beneath her feet. She wipes the sweat from her face with the back of her hand and turns like the tide to stare directly at Joe, eddies towards him, so close he can smell her flesh. One quick curving wave as she bends, bows before him. A flick of her hair, wet as seaweed, whips into his face. Hot brine on his lips.
(read on…)

by alan c. baird

H…O…L…L…Y…W…O…O…D… Up in the warm hills, nine billboard-sized letters appear to be a bit out of line, as usual. Although the familiar white sign is noticeably run-down, it’s still the proud calling card of a city built on dreams.

But something seems slightly wrong. Several more letters have been placed after the D: an L, an A, an N and yet another D, to spell out the word “HOLLYWOODLAND.”
(read on…)

by susan jane

Ken and I sat in the back of the room, in the very last row of chairs. He had one hand on my thigh, and another rested limp in his lap. The din of weeping and wet voices was a constant barrage on the senses, punctuated now and then by an anguished wail.

I felt guilty for simply being alive.
(read on…)

by w.a. smith

Charley Johnson stood at the living room window, motionless except for his wide-open eyes, watching the yard outside. Hurricane Annie was on the way, and he didn’t plan on missing anything.
(read on…)