By Marzia Rahman When the air smelt like an empty cookie jar and the lampposts shed yellow lights on the streets, she came out of her hut. Wearing a glossy sari with slim zari borders and red high heels, she walked past a dog, lying under a lamppost. The dog raised its head, howling. A … Continue reading The Only Happy Song She Remembered
Augustus
By Susan Cleveland "Where on earth am I? Everything seems so misty and grey…" "He thinks he's on earth?!" A young female voice giggled in the background. "Who said that? I told you I can't see anything…" "That's Wilhelmena– don't pay any attention to her." An older male advised somewhere off to the left. "I'm … Continue reading Augustus
Secrets
By Wendy Taylor Once Alannah turned twenty, she only ever interacted with her father on Christmas Day. Today she had the misfortune to deal with him twice. Her mother did not miss out though. Alannah made the two-hour trip north regularly to her childhood home for afternoon tea in the front room, perched on the … Continue reading Secrets
The Run Home
By Eric Burbridge For once I followed the doctor’s orders. “Get some sunshine, good ole vitamin D.” He said. I loaded my walker and headed for Tooley Park, a thirty-minute drive from the house. As fast as I walked being tall, thin and I stood erect, people questioned, did I need it? Yes, unfortunately, these … Continue reading The Run Home
The King’s Grapes
By Patricia Furstenberg A king from a country where only sand covered the ground and water was more precious than gold, and some say that even the king’s entire wealth, reaching his old age and having gathered all the treasures he could have wished for, and more, woke up one day desiring one more thing. … Continue reading The King’s Grapes
Bertie and the Sheep
By Daniel Groves Once there was a young man who loved old books. Bertavious Bookman, more commonly called Bertie, spent most of his time with books—searching for them, buying them, restoring them, and talking about them with anyone who would listen. He would spend hours locked within the panels of his library, reading all the … Continue reading Bertie and the Sheep
The Point of View
By Tim Law Life looks a great deal different from 12,000 feet. Sure things are smaller, that’s obvious. Almost everyone knows that things get very tiny when they are so far away. No, what I mean is looking down from so far up in the air you can almost believe that everything is at peace. … Continue reading The Point of View
Hydrogen
By Jim Bates I remember hearing the song by Three Dog Night, “One Is the Loneliest Number,” and thinking, Yeah, that’s me. All by myself. No one cares. Now I see that thought for what it really was, a cry in the night from a frightened six-year-old kid whose parents abandoned him to the child … Continue reading Hydrogen
Learning Like
By Earl Smith II As it happened Raccoon was foraging along the eastern bank of Brook That Wanders Through the Western Woods. The air was crisp this late fall day and the trees along both banks had already dropped some of their leaves, many of them onto the surface of Brook, only to be dutifully … Continue reading Learning Like
Black Miniskirt
By Sangeetha G She secretly removed the black colored miniskirt and pastel top from the cupboard and stuffed them hurriedly into her bag. She then adjusted the tip of her saree over her head to make her face only partially visible. She did not forget to wear all the signs of a traditional daughter-in-law - … Continue reading Black Miniskirt
Academy of the Heart And Mind 