Phillip Sterling – Clothes, and Other Forms of Occupation
Clothes, and Other Forms of Occupation When he realized the ink stain on his red tie was permanent, he packed into an empty Kleenex box four months’ worth of paperclips, two Post-It pads, the photo of his ex-wife with the dog she called Laundry (a dog that never really took to him in the eighteen […]
Arjun Razdan – Once It Is Done
Once It Is Done Reader: Writer, write me a fabulous story. Pack it with all the surprise you can imagine, make characters nobler than those of yesteryears, make the men forthright and famous and let the women be as beautiful and intriguing as Cleopatra. Let each word explode a new universe. Let each chapter be […]
Cassandra Passarelli – Night Shift at the Palace
Night Shift at the Palace Eight o’clock. ‘‘Bienvenidos! Welcome. Bienvenue. Nice room with view of the Baie de Tanger?’’ ‘‘You want coffee? Come.’’ ‘‘Hashish? Ground zero.’’ We have no work but we walk briskly nowhere. Grizzled patriarchs in marchas. Bearded fathers in white jelabayas. Fat uncles selling sesame cakes. Boys throwing water on beggars. Waiters […]
Luke Tennis – I Worked as a Waiter
I Worked as a Waiter I worked as a waiter in a restaurant called the Gallery, but I kept screwing up the checks, undercharging, overcharging. Sometimes I brought out the wrong orders, and once I tried to convince a guy that what I’d brought him, pasta, was better for him than the veal he’d ordered. […]
Lev Mirov – The Doorway
The Doorway The water is cold, up to my neck. Like Virginia, my pockets are full of black stones. I bend my knees, and I am six again; holding my breath in the swimming pool to see how long I last, staring up at the upside down world underneath water the sky as green as […]
