Fiction
Recommended
Carterville
I wanted to lift the glass-framed lid and hold the big German brown trout. He was smooth, beautiful, all shining gold—darker gold on top and lighter gold underneath. The gold had black, orange, and red…
Homecomings
At Eastside School in Idaho Falls, they gave us a full hour for lunch; and like most of the kids, I went home each day. Mom always had my lunch ready. I’d gulp it down…
White Shell
There are pieces of white shell sifted with the sands and soils of Dinetah that confuse newcomers and outsiders. Tourists look at the shells like puzzle pieces, trying to force them into what they know.…
You Can Count on the Fingers of Your One Hand the Reasons
Whether you were driving in from the east or the west you got to our mother’s from Canal Street here in southern Ohio. There at the big Mc Donald’s in Nelsonville you took the crossroad…
The Dissonance of Absolution
The phone rings once. I think about hanging up. The phone rings twice. I begin to believe my luck might hold out. The third ring proves me wrong. Something is amiss when grown children, adults…
The Walker
Our firsts and lasts were leaves burned the hour we left. Ted Hughes You could say that my life and The Walker’s life—well, it’s all been a question of firsts. And to be honest, I thought…
Heloise and Abelard
“We’ll get there by ten.” Nod and look behind, dance a quickstep ahead of the noise of a thousand feet on the wet pavement of Liege. Feels strange to be thrown into a world you’re…
The Siege of Troy
Do not expect, Hera, to know all my thoughts, even though you are my wife. What I find fitting to reveal, no god or man will know before you. But beware of finding out what…
Without Number
And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. . . . And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose. Moses…
Roses
The evening before Jim Wilson’s family moved, he and Bob Olding rode their bikes down to the Provo River to swim one more time. The last five boys were just leaving the hole, so Bob…