Gene

We walk a hallway of pictures. My old high school friend points to one I may find interesting. There she is. Her beautiful smile, her pretty hair. My first true love. Love to the marrow. I can not move, my feet are anchored. I am awash with emotions. Love, warmth, laughter, holding hands, a hug. Honest love. What if I had not run away? I was scared. Now I am lonely like a soul standing on a station platform. No one around. My train has left. I stop the tears on the outside, but inside it is different.

Joseph

Liken felt strange, lightheaded. Maybe it was the man, his host, who was strange. The man asked him was something wrong? Definitely odd: despite a jovialesque face, with round cheeks and a smear of thinning sandy hair, he had a vaguely piggish look to his eyes. The man suggested he drink more coffee from the orange mug on the table, expectantly. Dizzy, afraid, Liken hastily stumbled to his feet and staggered away.

Deidre

Fever blinded her. She couldn't see flowers. Nightmares jarred her awake. Midnight overheads became sun. She couldn't breathe, eat, go outside. Windows screamed. Ice chilled her bones. She fled. There was little food. Eggs from an iron skillet, instead of vitamins. She worked. Paint, paper, pen. She walked. Colors filled her skin and her work. Marsh grasses housed pinching crab holes. She peered down and saw flowers.

Susanne

Neville cradled the stone idol flecked with shiny metals. He divined an ancient presence and a jostle of rapt devotees. His pulse quicken in synchronicity with the old blood. Gazing into the pit eyes, he sought redemption from wandering. He might settle somewhere, bring the desert with him to another place, but out of the wind. Neville paid the tribesman; the paper bills flapped like little birds.

Margaux

i know the color and brand of your underwear, how much money you have in the bank, your pet peeves and how you truly feel about your in-laws. In the comfort of your home, I know you and your deep, dark, dirty secrets. You confide in me because I am outside of your inner circle. I am an outsider with keys to the inside.
So when you see me at the grocery store, it's like we never even met.

Stephanie

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Born in a warm climate, I never wore long johns until my second winter in a frigid climate. Who knew what to wear? Nobody told me. I got to ND in a coat I made out of a blanket. Ignorant! Deprived! There were no coats in Hawaii. The concept of layering wasn't spoken, it was ingrown. It's amazing I survived a day, let alone the whole winter.

lauren

Lena Jenkins was surprised to discover a rumpled note at the base of the American flag while walking on the moon. The note was so perverse that her space suit started to itch again near her belly button where she could not reach it. She could not escape the smell of pickles. Former astronaut J.T. Beller must have felt he could get away with this because in space there is no such thing as a snitch.

Joel

A Random Access Memory

A winter’s day, in a bleak but no longer cold December. Jennie shuffles beside IBM’s penultimate Jeopardy champ. Her iPhone 4S vibrates.
“What is love, Suri?”
“I do not know love.”
“No. Suri, that was the answer.”
“Oh, Watson.” Love bytes.

Nolan

The usual authority figures would later proclaim it to be a hoax, but all of humanity did a collective rolling double-take when everyone, everywhere, at 3:36pm by their watches suddenly found a note on royal blue vellum paper in their pockets that said, in their native language, "I’m sorry I haven’t been around lately. That will now change." At the bottom of the correspondence it was signed simply, "Love, God".

Tommy

She thought she was hearing things, more felt than heard really. Like when you feel your phone buzz in an empty pocket. She froze to listen; felt it again and was halfway down the hall before registering the faint tap at the door. Only slightly concerned about her morning attire, she opened the door. Her gasp, more internal than audible, expressed the shock of the scene on her now blood speckled welcome mat.

Reese

Racing low over scrub farmland, so low we can smell goats. Aboard, Jason and Andy test their guns—BRAAAP! Guns and crew working. Our helicopter is 5 minutes from the isolated SEAL Team. 5 minutes from close contact with Taliban; murdering thieves. We land in a duststorm, load the wounded. The Afghan translator smiles. Takeoff—CRACK! of an RPG. Andy fires back to get us to safety. We’re done, spent. Victorious…lucky.

Rylan

My dad placed a hundred dollar bill on the kitchen counter, I was 11 years old. I picked it up and held it up to the light, something I saw adults do. “That’s all the money we have,” my dad said. It was the most money I had ever handled in my life, but from the way my dad said this I knew it wasn’t enough. After he left the kitchen I let our dog out; I didn’t call him when he escaped the yard.

Melanie

The last house standing from the old neighborhood. The new neighborhood squishing the old as an octopus. Old house with peeling paint and broken windows waiting to be enveloped by the tentacles of the new. No one of the new remembers the old. A vanished family and new kids afraid of a once cozy home. A house stripped of decorations, memories and love. Stripped, standing and waiting for the embrace of the octopus.

Michael

Ursula Andress was SHE, the Moon goddess. She arises from the sea to be saved by Bond, James Bond. Honey Ryder in a bikini; a siren in silken sheaths and animal skins. Small town boy, large silver screen and a European accent. Ursula Major—not just a star, but her own constellation; floating high and north in my small town mind.

Ruty

Senate and congress convened, full of good cheer, working for the people of America and supporting their President. Green and clean would be their mantra with equality to all. Followers of Abraham took note and their religions gave equality and respect to women, as well as those of other faiths and races. As in all organizations, cultural climate trickles down, and so began the first glimmer of a real Peace on Earth.

Emily

people think the devil is red, has horns and a pitchfork, but hes an old white man in a black robe. I read somewhere not to have false idols , but he sits on his pedestal so i have to look up at him as he flaunts his power. He stares down condescendingly while holding up a book he threatens to throw at me, wich he quotes evil scriptures from, but ill be ok i was given a public pretender. That is like throwing rocks at tanks

Harris

Is that you, father? It is, the apparition replied. How is it on the other side? I asked. Cold, replied the ghost, very cold. I’m sorry to hear that, I said, Is there anything I can do? To this the ghost laughed a ghostly laugh. There is nothing the living can do for the dead, my long dead father replied. Do prayers help? I asked, but already the vision was fading away until only his ghostly laughter remained.

Harris

You cannot go back in time for longer than you have been alive, he said. In your case it’s 62 years. What happens if you do? I asked. Simple, you go into the void, the place you existed before you were conceived, the black nothingness from which there is no return. Are you sure you still want to go? Sure, I answered, I’ve been there before. It wasn’t so bad. So he set the dial to 63 years and I went into the void.

Catherine

Flies buzz in for a quick taste, settle slowly,very businesslike. Grass blades soak up the hot sun, doing their magic making heat into green filaments. The cows doze in brief bursts on their feet, chewing cud like Sisyphus pushing that chunk of rock. I stare, wonder if it'll be found by stink or by sight, and if it matters anyway. I hate that by giving him what he deserved, I've given up my place and my ease.

Lee

It was an awkward moment actually. Nothing like she had ever imagined. Shaun shoving the ring on her finger right there in the Automat, the Horn & Hardart in Times Square. Coffee pours from the lions mouth threatening to overfill her cup, but Shaun won’t release her hand. He’s waiting for a yes. She’s waiting to dive into her macaroni and cheese.