PIGEON REVIEW

By Ken Kapp - Stan remembered how Cindy had looked at Hank. He swallowed. “Do you love him?” “Well,” Cindy’s jaw went up and down...

By Debra Lee - My grandfather added a rear upstairs room to his house when he was in his forties. When he came home from work, he didn’t...

By Mark Hannon - Mabel’s eyes popped open, and she looked at the clock radio. 5:25. Should I get up now? she thought. “No,” her mother...

By Michael Anthony - It began as a perfect summer day. The kind I had dreamt about during the final week of school. Though only the first...

By Denise O'Hagan - Squatting down at the quayside, he could see it clearly; he’d never been this close before. All hung over with ropes...

By Hantian Zhang - Summer, 1965. A white-hot, long afternoon. Narrow, staid alleyways flanked by rickety, wood-frame houses. We wake up...

By Mike Lee - Feeling like an empty vessel filled with dirt, Maeve slept badly, waking up every hour from two o’clock on. Finally, she...

By Peter J. Stavros - One time when I was a kid, Pops took me to the circus, just me and him, a “guys’ day” he called it. It wasn’t one...

[Trigger Warning: Implied sexual assault.] By Peter Zowa - I thought I knew what death looked like, its stinking breath reeking from its...

By Matthew McGuirk - The comfort of country air is something I’m growing to appreciate. The silent pauses with my hands in the dirt or...

By Ellen Sollinger - My dad became obsessed with sailing in the autumn of 1976. He had purchased a new 15-foot Sunbird sailboat after...

By Ginger Gannaway - Going to the camp on Good Friday epitomized “Lassiez les bon temps rouler!” for Viv. A pre-Easter Fontenot family...

By Nick Young - When Ruth Tremayne died, she was sitting in a recliner in the living room of her cramped apartment over a used furniture...

By Catherine O'Brien - On a somnolent evening which fancies itself as a stepping stone to night, I’m walking by the lake. The creatures...

By Wayne McCray - Some people love where they live. I'm inclined to say it all depends. Few have the window view I do, that's for...

By Vincent Barry - Amidst lengthening unfaced shadows I see that I’ve lived—well, I know this will sound strange— without ever realizing...

By Matthew Henry - This early into the investigation they’re thinking a pressure cooker or pipe-bomb. Maybe C4 or Semtex. But I’m certain...

By Dave Gregory - Bryan Jarvis was trespassing. I knew the word from signs on trees and fence posts along the highway but it applied to...

By Marlene Kurban - The email from my old college boyfriend, Stefan, came the same day I received a letter from my alma mater announcing...

By Franz Jørgen Neumann - After waiting for a few potential buyers to enter the on-the-market home of Eric and Erica Sweet, Kirk and...

By Anne Dorrian - Maria puts the key in the lock like an expert defusing an explosive device. Now that Francesca is dead it's unclear...

Editor's Note: This story is creative non-fiction. By Barbara Thompson - “Where did you get that tan?” “In a cemetery.” The question is...

By Cynthia McVay - Ruben floats over to Sabrina and gives her a kiss. "Am I allowed to do that?" Sabrina smiles. He's being confusing on...

By Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi - After seven days of intolerable confinement, Izzy decided that this foggy afternoon was the right time to...

By William S. Hubbartt - “So what did you do this time?” I smiled, with that innocent subtle shrug, my mind evaluating the alternatives,...

By Marilyn Fahey - The bike lay abandoned alongside the railroad tracks, way out in Rattlesnake City, a field no one dared venture out...

By Lindsay Crudele - Green peas. Salted peanuts. Cherries, warm in my backpack, plucked from the mesh, pits popped through the mouth of...

By M. Sweeney - They arrived all at once, tipsy with tales of dangerous Uber drivers and drug store deviants in the mini mart next door. ...

By Nathalie Lawrence - “This isn’t something we can be expected to endure.” Mrs. Ashley Fitzgerald draws out endure so long it doesn’t...

By Sarp Sozdinler - States receive news from each other from one disaster to another, his warden used to say (“like family members”)....

By Chip Jett - She came into possession of the pocket watch by way of a fortune-telling chicken on the boardwalk. It was the summer of...

By Gene Glotzer - As they shuffled slowly into the cafeteria/common room, she was already sitting, hunched over, at her usual table in...

By Rueda Wright - The guy at the gate is grinning as I approach. I hate that bastard. He takes a disturbing delight in delivering bad...

By Dan Nielsen - Mister Bluster cozies into his bright red La-Z-Boy. He presses the illuminated blue side button, legs slowly rising...

By Julia Abelsohn - No matter how many times I poured over the details of our fifteen-year marriage I couldn’t detect the first signs of...

By Kathrina E. Jones - All “Dit/Dah” Morse Code in this story is a shorthand system of "Q Codes" used by HAM operators to save time with...

By Jeremy Broyles - Jay, armored but with a laundry basket, trapped with his wife in their downstairs bedroom, leaned his bare shoulder...

By Bakhtiar Ahmed - "Why are you crying?" "I am not" My father and brother turn to me. My eyes tear up by themselves. "You are. You're...

By Vicki Whicker - All growth is a leap in the dark. Henry Miller Pacific Palisades, CA. The Huntington. Spring, 1995. On a cliff wedged...

By Cindy Marabito - They’d come from all around. Not the whole world, but from the surrounding Texas towns. Paris. Whitehouse. Palestine....

By Gale Acuff - In Sunday School today Miss Hooker said that when it's time for me to die it's God's will and there's no getting around...

By Yash Seyedbagheri - Empty space envelops. Even blasting Netflix, stillness rises. Coldness creeps upon me. Some nights, I go for walks....

By William Wodhams - “I don’t know if I want to do this,” she said. “Look at that guy. By the stop lights.” Alan pointed at a heavy man...

By Amanda Gibson - Each time their car passed the farmhouse with its jumble of outbuildings, Sara saw domestic bliss. Despite the...

By Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi - Heart pumping faster than her legs, she feared she might kill her mother, feared her father would catch...

By Melodie Corrigall - If she had kept to her old ways—as annoying as they were to family and friends—she could have saved the day....

By Mike Lee - After that morning, Charlotte crossed the boundary to delve deep into the desert of her heart. As she lay in bed, an...