Topic
Slipstream
We can't define exactly the region that slipstream occupies between magic realism and sf/fantasy, but there is a certain feel.
The Hole in the Storm
For the longest time, I didn't understand my older brother's love of storm fishing. Mom used to say it came from when Dee left his stuffed triceratops outside. I can picture Dee's baby eyes widening upon realizing his beloved Spikey had been left outside in the rain, toddling…
An Intergalactic Love Story of Cosmic Proportions
Andromeda was a big, beautiful galaxy who knew what she wanted. She longed to collide into another galaxy and become one. Not just any galaxy. She wanted the Milky Way. She'd always dreamed of smashing her solar systems into his, her suns colliding into his suns, her planets…
Hell is...
Third on the left along the somber corridor. Overhead, lights cast a flat, cold, glow. One buzzed, as if holding a dying wasp. As I went to open the door, the notion struck that I couldn't recall which floor I was on, nor why I was certain this was the right room. I paused,…
Bedtime Before Lightning
The assistant croons as she rocks the jars; livers and ears and brains and hearts. "Little one, or ones. However many you are. Would you like to hear a story?" Once, there was a girl who got hurt. Her body shattered and shredded so badly she should have died. But she was saved…
Read the Manual
I work for MYGODDAMLIFE (TM). My job would be easier if people would just read the manual. FAQ Q - Help! I've made a mess of things. What should I do? A - Read the manual. Q - Can I get a refund? A - No. No refunds. This is clearly stated in the manual. Q - Is there a restart…
Imaginary Friends
****Editor's Note: Trigger warning. Loss of a child.**** "Mom! Mom! Can Icya stay for dinner?" Gina turned around slowly. Ryan stood in the doorway, tousled and muddy, his four-year-old face aglow. There was no one on the porch with him. "Um, what was your friend's name again,…
Out with the Old
Outside, the cold night was broken with fireworks and bursts of laughter from the streets below. "Have to see the New Year," the old woman gasped. "Have to." "Quiet, Annie," Jess said, smoothing the bedsheets over her new patient. The old woman's skin was like marble. She…
Your Attention Please
The green light at the top of his wallscreen sprang to life. Stunned speechless for a moment, Berg Harris shook off the feeling with a shudder. He forced himself up from his couch. Stepped forward. Audience to performer. The great wheel had turned--to his turn now. The great…
To Go Forth in Mail-Shirt and Shield
The dragon is not a metaphor. He is meat and muscle, scales and teeth. He is claws that tear through castle stone and fire that leaves naught but smoke and ash where once a village stood. He is destruction given wing. Your horse is saddled, your armor polished, your lance…
The First of Many Lies You'll Tell Her
When they first lay her in your arms, you will relearn what it means to fear. The softness of her skin, the fluttering delicacy of her breaths, the clarity of her guileless gaze. She will grasp your finger in her infant hand, and with that tiny, tenacious grip, she will break…
Decoherence is a Lady
The first time you see her you're at a party. You know what she is the moment you see her; your eyes might as well be rulers, microscopes, polarimeters. She is a free spirit, innocent, driven, naive, the most beautiful thing at this party, a billion times more arresting that…
The Bridge Fugue: Variations on Emptiness
It is false that a bridge has exactly two points of contact with the world, one precisely here, and one at a specific there. At least, it is false of this bridge. The rusted girders hold an aging bridge firmly to my island. So that makes one point of contact. Clear, certain,…
Crash Test Dummy
I took your picture when your guard was down. And then another immediately after. I kept them long after I should have. The two: one beautiful, at your unguarded best; the other awkward, embarrassed by the lens. I suspect you knew I was stealing something, that I should have…
Out, Damned Virus
Gentlewoman: "She has sanitizer by her continually. 'Tis her command." Doctor: "Look, how she rubs her hands." Gentlewoman: "It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her to continue in this for thirty seconds." Lady Macbeth: "Yet here's a…
The Ones Who Don't Walk Away
A lot is made of those who walk away from the city. And I get it. I do. It's a shock to learn the city's secret. That a child must suffer for our prosperity. Of course it breaks a lot of people. Of course they walk away. Of course they abandon their civic duty. Sure there are…
Little Dreams
The dream nets stirred in the early morning breeze, their strands stretching out high over the rooftops. Miya tried to focus on them as she clambered over the rickety platforms. The dream merchants had already stripped away the large dreams, decanting fantasies of riches and…
Things the spirit living inside the west wind brought to Abby's house after the terrible storm
1. An entire little library, ripped from its roots, tumbled and rolled straight to her front door. Abby didn't recognize it, and it still had books inside, so she just stuck it in her front yard. Grudgingly. 2. A pile of puppies, all scrabbling paws and wiggly warm bellies and…
A Seven Years' Death Touch
When sleep came He was sure (and he was not sure) That all of this had happened in a dream within a dream within a dream And in the first dream: He lay under a cherry tree, in a forest of cherry trees. He lay under an apple tree, in a forest of apple trees. He lay under a peach…
Carnival Days and Days
After a day of rides and caramel corn, we were sad to leave the carnival. The jugglers, the tightropes, the half-winking games that everyone knew were cons. We wanted to con the con artists back, to win what everyone said was impossible, knowing that we never would succeed. And…
The Misadventures of Tom Jones, Time Traveler--Being a dialogue between two hemispheres of the author's brain that is neither uncommon nor blessed with a happy outcome
Wow. Best. Dream. Ever. Are you getting it down? It practically writes itself! Beloved literary hero in an adventure leaping between epochs instead of bedrooms . . . Don't forget the bit where Tom vanishes from Molly's arms and lands naked on the Western front. That's hot. . . .…
The Economist's Sisyphean Task
Marisol Prieto watched the boulder yet again slip and fall from its perch. She sighed. "This has no utility." King Sisyphus eyed her with disdain and defensive ego. "I almost got it that time. I'll get it this time." He began the long walk down the mountain, and Marisol followed…
Purposeful
1. Compromised "That was purposeful." "Yes, no curling. Not posturing, he's in there. Mr. Lund? Ed? Can you wiggle your toes for me, Ed?" The daughter stepped forward, hesitant, hand on the rail of the bed. "How will we know if he--when he--" The patient's color was better. He…
The Girl
She lives in the compartment below us with the potter. She is not his wife, she's much too young for him. Many nights I hear her screams. I try to block them out. I keep to myself, as is the way of all good Citizens. Last night it went on too long. I find her naked on the floor.…
I Bid Genocide
***Editor's Note: Mature story, dealing with mature, disturbing themes*** Ebba Molina chews her lip in the Forever or Gone contestants' booth, watching the opening bids of the opposing team. "Mx. Ozturk from Izmir, what do you bid?" The game show host asks, glittering his…
Alien at Home Again
Daniel carried a kettle of boiling water out to the edge of the driveway where I stood reading the newspaper. "Two steps to the left, Dad, if you don't mind," he said, as I looked down at the melon-sized mound teeming with fire ants inches from my feet. I walked away while…
Miguel Prays While His Mother Cries
The blessed truck would arrive at midnight to carry them out of Phoenix. Each day Miquel prayed to the Virgin for her forgiveness: for hiding in the basement of this house he did not own, for dragging his own mother out of her home while Guatemala burned, for promising that life…
The Converse
"What do you think happens to people in a dream when the dreamer wakes up?" she asked. He thought about the question, and looked at her. She was pale and slender, with long black hair, dark eyes, and an accent he could not quite place. They were sitting in a favorite cafe of…
The Hole-seller
Spring had come to the village. The snow slowly melted, the streams began to plash and chuckle, and once more the old hole-seller tripped along the road, carrying her basket lighter than dreams. Before she reached the first house, a child saw her and called out. Somebody else…
The Marionette's Daughter
***Editor's Note: Adult Story*** She'd been born with strings. With little wooden arms. With her happy cherub face smiling a painted smile. "What did you expect?" asked the doctors as the new parents looked on in horror. In particular, her father. Her parents took her home…
The Day Our Ships Came In
My best friend Sandra and I used to joke around about how our day was going to come. We stayed in town after high school. I got a job at the diner. Sandra worked at a resort farther up the mountain. "Someday, Lesley," Sandra liked to say, "our ships are going to come in and…
Things You Can't Forget
***Proctor's Note: This Story is Mature, for Adult Audiences*** You watch him die. Over, and over, and over. Every time, you think it may be the last, but you lose count after three hundred and twenty-two. There doesn't seem to be an end in sight. The experiment was only…
Your Great Journey
You died on your fifteenth birthday. As you sprawl on the couch a week later, you think that dying on your birthday might be the saddest thing you can think of. Your parents certainly aren't taking it well. Your mother hasn't been able to bring herself to return your presents,…
Your Great Journey
You died on your fifteenth birthday. As you sprawl on the couch a week later, you think that dying on your birthday might be the saddest thing you can think of. Your parents certainly aren't taking it well. Your mother hasn't been able to bring herself to return your presents,…
The Confectioner
The secret is in how you cook the sugar. Too hot and the crystals will crack when removed from the pan. Too cool and all the delicate whorls and swirls will collapse like soft clay in a toddler's hands. People think there's magic involved, but it's far more complicated than…
Crave
After determining that I had starved myself to invisibility, I left the bathroom, knocking down two margarita-soaked women. They shrieked in columns of tiny, boozy bubbles. Horrified beyond speech, they watched my empty pants step over them. I felt weak and exhilarated. The…
Time of Reflection
There's a dead man in the mirror, staring at me. I don't know how I know he's dead. Maybe the cold cast of his eyes, how his obsidian pupils and irises of dark fog gaze through me from behind. Maybe it's the lack of animation, the razor line of his mouth, the sluggish movements…
Invader No
***Editor's Note: Adult story, for mature readers*** Maybe you're just imagining that you're dying, she said. And yeah, well, maybe I can't stop it. We're talking placebo memories and the feverish lave. We're talking about-- "I don't want to talk about this." Kaled Anei smirks.…
All the Time in the Sky
Do you remember the day the sun split in two? We thought it was an eclipse, at first--the way the sky darkened, how the sun faded into a shadow of itself--and we watched the heavens reflected in that stupid Italianate birdbath you adored, hand in hand as song birds went silent…
The Cat Is A Metaphor
So this guy I know, he broke up with his boyfriend, but they lived together for a while after because they shared a lease, which was basically just as awkward as you'd expect. And they had a cat, this gray tabby missing half of one ear, and both of them refused to feed it on the…
Prodigal Daughter
Becks stared at me, her bright eyes meeting my angry glare. From her laptop a man's voice read out a series of numbers. His words were cut and spliced together, the auditory equivalent of a shattered mirror. "It's called a numbers station," Becks explained. "They've been…
Only One Way
"There's only one way to learn how to swim," Dad said, "and that's to do it." That's when he shoved me into the deep end of the pool. Now that I think of it, I should've been suspicious when he came up behind me. Then I was in the water, splashing and spluttering, and then…
Decennarchy
We called them the Decennarchy, since they were a government that appeared every ten years, and because our librarian liked languages. Sure enough, ten years to the day since the last sighting, their domed temple came into being on the town green. How to describe the…
Astronauts Can't Touch You
Your whole world is the hospital room. Everything else is light years away. New York City, for instance: sometimes it moves closer, sometimes further. On 9/11, it was in your backyard, but today, today, it's Pluto, an inconceivable distance of darkness and dying stars. Who cares…
The Wizard of Wall Street
Not so many years ago, Wall Street had its very own wizard. He was typical of wizards--eccentric, bearded, and obsessed with numbers. He mumbled to himself and rarely bathed, but wherever he went a stream of hungry young traders followed him. They tried to catch every…
Retrying
To understand is the beginning of failure My lover is gone and I am This body is made of fire and ash that rains like nothing has rained here for a thousand years. Two thousand years ago I fell here in a melting chariot, the sky beneath my feet congealing into an epiphany of…
The Blue Unicorn
For those who are tired of hearing about the lovely, perfect unicorns that once existed in our world, tired of seeing flashes of white in the forests that might or might not be them, tired of seeing in the moonlight, near ponds, the ghostly glow of flank and mane and horn that…
The Flight of a Village in the Midst of War
We used to think the trains, half wild and skittish, would be the most difficult part of our escape. We'd seen brave Myron try to mount a train as it raced through, only to die when it threw him down onto the rails. It hurt when he fell, terribly so, but a pain we thought we…
Nine Songs
1. The first song is forgettable. Even though you can't stop dreaming about it. 2. The second song is some sort of calypso number. It reminds you of some of the songs in The Little Mermaid, only instead of the sea, it's about walls, and stars, and holes, and dancing. You think.…
Time and Space Died Yesterday
And the Americans of the Revolution are fighting alongside the British of the Great War and Alan takes a box cutter to one of Helen's paintings and she knows that this, their marriage, their life together is over, the spilled pinot bleeding into the white carpet of their…
Company Man
Sam was a company man. He drank the coffee provided. He used his designated parking spot. He always said yes to whatever was asked of him. For kicks, we asked him to kill the next person who walked through the door. When George walked through the door, Sam killed him. We were…
An Act of Consumption, in Two Parts
In the basement, there is candy. Boxes teetering atop boxes, overloaded with gum gums and chew worms and those little nougat-filled eyeballs that blink when you stare overlong; with honeyed do's and honeyed dont's; with tar braids and clots of candied floss. The basement has all…
You Are Not the Hero of This Story
This is a story everyone has heard many times before. It begins with a dragon. You are not the dragon. Dragons are scaly creatures that breathe fire, and you have soft skin and breathe air that smells like whatever you ate for lunch. The dragon--which is definitely not you--is…
The Shape-Shifter's Mother
On Monday, Jeremy Sanders woke as a turtle. He hadn't always been a turtle. His mother certainly hadn't given birth to a turtle that rainy night five years ago, but there was no denying that's what he was now, from his exquisite, beak-like mouth all the way down his coarse shell…
Flight
I can't die like this. Not with these strangers wailing about God and Jesus and their mothers. Not with the nose of the plane doing six hundred miles per hour towards a cornfield in some godforsaken Midwestern plain. Not like this. The jetway smells of faded industrial carpet…
Bones of Steel
If Dad could have a robot wife, why not a robot daughter? Maybe the chart on the end of my bed should read Abby 9078982 instead of Abby Hayes. It's the only explanation that makes sense. The Doctor will think that I'm crazy but the robots are so good, why couldn't someone have…
Maze
The white rat looks forlorn, sitting on a pile of empty clothes. Professor Talbot rolls her eyes. Apparently, Jeremy Turn, her assistant, was carrying the rodent snug in his breast pocket. It's a tradition among postgraduate wise-asses. But why did he strip, and where did he go,…
Encounter with a Dorian
***Editor's Warning: This is an adult story, for grownups*** Miles stumbled over it in a poorly lit entryway. He mistook the thing for a pile of trash, mistook a paper-wrapped foot for just paper. Miles fell. He picked himself up quickly, on guard, ready for a mugging. The…
Time Machines: An End of the World Inventory
The watch strapped to your wrist is a time machine, recording your movement forward through time. The ticking drives you mad, and you can't get that smear off the dial. The earth is a time machine, spinning you through a succession of days. Each day is long enough to dig a grave…
Ships in the Night
The problem with seeing the future is that you can do nothing to change it. Kuni had figured this out long ago, when she was still a young child. People would ignore you, disbelieve you, or resent you. After enough failed attempts to change the course of events, she stopped…
Clarity
Today they turned the fog off. At the office, no work gets done. We walk around holding up paperclips and staplers, rotating them in front of our faces. We smile like Cheshire cats and skip down the halls. In the wake of clarity, we become schoolchildren. "It's like you're…
Everything's Unlikely
Happy and scared and thinking about odds, I turn from Forest onto Broadway, setting sun behind me, a mile from The Haggard Traveler, a sports bar where the afternoon phone crew meets for FAC. Broadway's a miserable stretch of road between Forest and the bar: ten unsynchronized…
Let's Start from the Top
"Good Morning, Mr. Dooley." I glanced down at my morning script. "Good morning, Mr...." I turned the page, "...Smith. Looks like we'll get those showers this afternoon." He chuckled and adjusted his reading glasses a little so he could get a better look at his next line. "We…
There's Always a Nuclear Bomb at the End
There is always a nuclear bomb at the end. Sometimes it belongs to terrorists, their lives devoted to this one thing, this one chance to blow up a city peopled entirely with women, children, frightened middle-aged cab drivers, young executives. They will detonate it whether…
Motivational Story
You start reading a story, and realize it seems to be in second person, present tense, like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure stories. But it's not. This story is actually in epistolary format--a message from me to you. I've chosen this method of communication with you…
Exchanges, No Refunds
"They wash ashore like moonbeams. I bring them in and lay them out to dry," the old man said from his stool behind the counter. The words lingered with hints of Latakia blend pipe tobacco. Dull yellow whiskers circled his mouth, those on his cheeks coarse and white. "Sometimes…
Exchanges, No Refunds
"They wash ashore like moonbeams. I bring them in and lay them out to dry," the old man said from his stool behind the counter. The words lingered with hints of Latakia blend pipe tobacco. Dull yellow whiskers circled his mouth, those on his cheeks coarse and white. "Sometimes…
Cattail Heart
My mother told me, "You are my heart." "I don't want to be a heart." "I don't mean a heart like a lump of bloody meat. I mean a heart like the center of a thing. Like the pith at the base of a cattail. If someone peeled all of me away bit by bit, what would be left would be…
Love is a component of this story
***Editor's Note: Adult Story, not for Minors*** Love is a component of this story. Specifically the love that develops between a man, Ernest, and a woman, Bruce. Ernest identifies himself as definitely straight, but his physiological responses could be classified as 73%…
The Best Trick
The lights were strung and the music played soft in the night, the town dancing close. Everyone had come out. The mayor and his wife. Small Joseph and Maralene, the boy's crush. Families and strangers. Daughters and sons. Light bloomed against the dancing square like a…
Silence
We eat cold macaroni and cheese from the saucepan while the newscaster tells us that the adverbs will go first. First is difficult for her. Each time they cut from the international footage to her rote summary of the crisis, she pauses too long with her teeth against her lower…
When The World Was Full of People
Once, when the world was full of people, I saw a man who looked exactly like my brother: same height, same stringy ponytail, same puffy cheeks, same big gut. Same type of clothes, too--bleach-splattered jeans, faded plaid shirt with cut-off sleeves. I was across the street, and…
Tunnel Vision
You follow her down the street because her story is important. She doesn't know it, but you've been with her a long way. She is the protagonist. You know everything there is to know about her: her favorite color (deep violet), her tortured past (how can one endure such abuse?)…
Puppet Man
Walter's wife needed a hobby. In Walter's opinion, it was more of a want than a need, but he didn't dare argue the point. When Maeve needed something, she had to have it. After all, it was how they'd become a couple. She paced the living room, fingers working themselves into…
Airship Hope
The airship was made of spider silk, and held aloft by prayer. Monks had labored a thousand years to build it, directed by prophets who foretold the end of their world. At least, the end of Rynille. For what purpose could there be in building an airship, if nothing lay beyond…
Maps
Christina drew her first map at age five, nubby red crayon in her fist. She thrust the sheet into her grandmother's lap, warring for attention against four squalling cousins. "What's this?" asked her grandmother, her smooth, ripe lips pursing in a frown. "That's where you'll…
When She is Empty
Kat knew something was wrong the moment she opened the front door. There was a change in the weight of the air and divots in the rug where Iriana's wingback chair should be. The first stirring of pain bloomed in her chest, a dark flower of possibility. Of warning. Her bones…
Mama's Science
At ten, Darcy considered her father the center of the universe, a constant like one of Newton's laws. She had just learned about basic physics in science class the day she returned home to find out that he had gone into the stars to seek other fortunes. "He'll come back, right?"…
A Silly Love Story
***Editor's Note: There be adult language beyond this sign, used sparingly. *** There is something haunting Jeremy's closet. To be fair, it's probably been in the cramped studio apartment longer than he has. He first noticed it when he moved in three weeks ago, an odd smell of…
Endgame
"Death ensues within thirty seconds." The voice conveying this warning was calm, restrained, devoid of any sense of urgency. It was matter of fact. But I was gripped by the same surge of adrenalin as I always was. Thirty seconds! It was the barest fraction of an instant, it was…
Seven Losses of Na Re
One My life is described by the music of mute violins. When my parents married, my great-grandfather, may the earth be as a feather, ascended the special-guests podium, cradling the old fiddle to his chest. "And now the zeide will play the wedding melody," they said. "A special…
Underneath
"Thank God," my anger says to me. I had just found her, buried in a closet, and I took her outside into the yard to look at her in the sunlight. I was excited to realize that I owned her. She took the form of a dark cloak, the kind I'd seen on other women. I hung her over a low…
Joey LeRath's Rocketship
Billy met Joey LeRath the same day he lost his family in Crouchtree market. His parents had gotten into one of their rows over at the nuclear weapons stand and his little sister had started to cry, so Billy had run off, not really paying attention to where he was going. He hated…
The Black Spirits Which Rage In The Belly Of Rogue Locomotives
On the evening that Jack's mother became a robot, she was enmeshed in the cushions of a sofa as another Law and Order plot was poured into her, one dripping burst of photons at a time, twenty-four times per second. Her mind was ensnared, as per seven o'clock routine, by the…
Trading the Days
I will not give up today. I will not give up today because I have learned that every day is necessary. Every day is precious. Like all of you, I have given up plenty of days. It's a good deal: trade the bad days, the quiet days, the nothing days for a percentage return to your…
Like Origami in Water
Johnny is angry again. I hate this part, but I won't try to stop him. I would feel the same way, too. "It's not fair," he yells, spit flying out of the corners of his mouth. "And it's not right. Why can't they figure out what this is? Why can't they fix it?" Music blares from…
Junk Silver
Albe ignored Tic, who exclaimed "huh!" after stabbing another Wikipedia article in his usual overly-enthusiastic way. Albe then watched Tic push the article off the sharp end of his poker into the bag. Tic wiped his hand on his leg, as he did every time he cleared his poker of…
Exit Stage Life
The door appeared beside Mabel Powell's desk at nine o'clock. It clunked into place, making a showy deal of its arrival, exit sign neon-lit above its frame. Mabel sputtered coffee across the morning post. The phone rang. As if everything was running to routine, Mabel answered…
This Always Happens Here
Tommy is a boy who lives inside a snow globe. When you shake the snow globe, Tommy's arms fly into the air and he spins around, laughing. His parents refer to this as his job--the requirement for living inside the snow globe, where life is perpetually wonderful. "When someone…
Heart on Green Paper
He loved her like she was food after he was lost at sea, like she was air run through a mountain forest. He said it was for forever and thought it was true. She wanted to stay casual and open. She wanted to travel and build adventure. He mentioned kids on their first date. He…
The Large People
Patricia Sweetman saw a bowler hat on the ground, its rim resting against the surface. She went to it, bent over, and studied it. There was dirt in the crease on top, more dirt on the sides, but for all that it looked fresh and unharmed. She reached out and lightly brushed off…
Dharma Dog and Dogma
The door crashes open, shattered by a kicking black boot. The police have cloaking devices, noise cancellation, robots, battering rams, and computerized lock picks--technology. The big black jackboots? Awkward, but what a retro statement. A full fire team of Forces of Order and…
To Soothe Ravaged Throats
There are six drinks in the World's caf�. The first is coffee, which is strong enough to lift freight trains and is singlehandedly responsible for the workload in organic chemistry. Only college students who haven't slept in four days, engineers, and those who wish to be "real…
Say Zucchini, and Mean It
That summer we used to go searching for the lovesick. Someone'd pick a suburb and we'd bus it out there, a gaggle of us watching the suburbs slip by, killing time. Then we'd split up and go searching, trying to find the weirdest case in the weirdest location. That summer you'd…
The Birdcage Heart
One She likes watching him dress. He likes to be watched, so he goes through the motions: yesterday's underwear; Levis, left leg following the right; the belt threaded through the loops, tugged tight and fastened; yesterday's black socks; the crimson sneakers, the laces, the…
The Elephant Man's Love Child
Shadows flicker across wall and tin ceiling. The dancing light exaggerates the lines of old Nurse's profile to the chiseled, stony look of a gargoyle. The girl feigns sleep as Nurse walks away. She blows a kiss Nurse will not feel, whispers a goodnight Nurse will not hear. The…
Dragon Dreams on Cardboard Wings and Tiny Scraps of Yellow
Susan sighed as she peeled a sticky note from the yellow paper patchwork pasted on her cubicle wall. Scrawled in thick black lines, the words "Compile CountString class header--2 hours" dictated the next indisputable edict in an endless cycle of programming tasks that filled a…
Migrating Bears
Joseph Godfrey believes himself to be the son of Bluebeard. How else can he explain the parade of women's bodies in his bedroom closet, hanging there like limp socks. Only it is not many women, but one: his mother, who died weeks ago but keeps coming back. He has found her…