Current Issue

 

 

A Mennonite Soldier

Robert S. Brunk

In February of 1985, my third year in the business, I received a call . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Things Lost, Things Found

Jennifer Lang

“Where are you from?” “What’s home?” “America, France, Israel . . .”

 

 

 

 

 

Marge

Melissa Ballard

. . . it was the last sentence of that note, scrawled on tissue—paper-thin, cream stationary, which made me pause . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Death, Driveways, and Dreams

Cindy Bradley

Twelve years old, I walk barefoot down our driveway to retrieve the Los Angeles Times. It’s still early . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the Doctor

Sandra Miller

Some look forward to the visit to the doctor with great anticipation . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Floating Fire

Mike Gracey

Mom keeps looking at the swirl. I try to pull her out of it by asking what she’s thinking. Then I ask again, louder this time . . .

 

 

Touching Things

Bill Vernon

I once stood before that bank’s line of tellers until I thought they must be suspicious of me, staring up at that picture like a man planning a financial withdrawal by force. I was in fact trying to . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy Grace’s Mistake

John E. Keats

In my first full-time job out of high school, during the reckless eighties, I met an actual crazy woman . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Vinescape

Hilary Schaper

. . . their tendrils weaving a web over the house–sealing windows, shuttering doors, barring all comings and goings, wrapping us tight within–and imprisoning us . . .

 

 

 

For Remembering How to Live Without You

Telaina Eriksen

My mother has brown eyes. She used to love to read . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Cynthia Jones

Nuclear Bombs
in the Backyard

Cynthia Jones

We are on the outskirts when we spy a mushroom cloud over the town. The cloud, capped like a giant Cremini mushroom, billows thick and trails a dark grayish substance in its mushroom stem. It looms dark against a clear sky over . . .

 

 

 

Going Home Again

Mel Livatino

Leaving home was an immensity. I’ve been trying all my life to . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exposure

Michelle Shappell Harris

All manner of people have their secrets. And buildings, for that matter . . .

 

 

 

 

Budapest, Bridge to My Past

Erika Reich Giles

The cloud cover that blanketed Europe on our flight from Amsterdam dispersed as we approached Budapest . . .I was giddy with excitement and danced out of the plane . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nate Years

Natalie Taylor

I dressed carefully the day I decided to be a girl . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Aloha

Shiv Dutta

“. . . at last you’ve got your brother back!”

 

 

 

 

 

A Muse Unmasked

Michael L. Johnson

Some years ago British researcher Paul McDonald and his team at the University of Wolverhampton completed their quest for the world’s oldest recorded joke. Among their discoveries was a riddle . . .

 

 

 

I Love You, Please

Melissa Wiley

. . . we ate dinner in a candlelit crêperie where the maître d’ rebuked my husband for not giving me a kiss . . .