A, B, C, D. Test subjects.
Under dark we whispered the names of our parents, our sisters, our brothers. We vowed not to forget them. Not to forget ourselves.
The Experimenters did weird things to us. We behaved. To them, we were toys.
To ourselves: Autumn, Briar, Calla, Dawn. Girls.
Ginny Feng lives in Tennessee, where she writes short stories and reads fantasy and learns lots.
“It would be scary on your own, this tunnel.”
“Yeah, glad we can go together. Makes it almost normal.”
“I know, like we’re going for a walk. Take my hand, till we reach the light.”
“Didn’t think it’d be like this, did you?”
“No. I wish we could tell everyone.”
Clare is an enthusiastic reader and writer of historical fiction, a doting grandmother, volunteer ESOL teacher, gardener, and knitter.
“Monsters have green eyes,” she said, working feverishly with a crayon. “You can tell he’s a boy monster,” she said.
“Really?” I said. “What about girl monsters?”
“Girls are too good to be monsters.”
Suddenly I had no idea if I had been a good father or a terrible one.
Jim Woessner is a visual artist and writer from California. He has an MFA from Bennington. Publishing credits include Unbroken Journal, The Sea Letter, Adelaide Magazine, Potato Soup Journal, Ariel Chart, Peeking Cat, Critical Read, and others.
He sits on the park bench, remembering her.
Not long ago, she was by his side.
If you stare long enough, you can see the boy he used to be.
He smiles at me and I at him.
His, an unspoken invitation; mine, a polite offering.
I quicken my pace.
Deirdre Smith (B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.) has dabbled in writing for as long as she can remember. She has recently started back to work as a teacher and Guidance Counsellor after a decade of being a stay-at-home mom to her three young children. She resides in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The boys started cooking hours ago. One is out looking for Parmesan. One took on salsa from scratch. One starts talking road trip, and the music kicks in. Dub. Pinball patterns on a cresting verge. Parmesan’s got a Land Cruiser, bum tail light, and it could all go either way.
Evan Harris is the author of The Quit.
When the clusters of doctors come making their rounds,
she’s sorry there aren’t enough chairs.
She lets them ask all their questions, feel her pulse,
shine their lights in her eyes,
then apologizes—she can’t offer coffee or tea.
When they smile their goodbyes,
she invites them to visit again.
Jennifer L Freed writes mostly poems, and sometimes very short stories. Find her at @jenniferfreed20 or jfreed.weebly.com.
I figure if I paint the walls clean enough and the color is neutral enough my landlord won’t mind. If he won’t let me out of my lease I need to change the four walls somehow. Her blush is still staining the wall she used to lean on while reading.
Sarah is a student at The New School where she is exercising her writing craft and preparing for a career in the field. She is constantly being inspired and reinspired by her life in New York City, and her protagonist origin story that brought her there.
Dreams danced as she scanned travel sites while sipping coffee: exotic locales… cuisines… exploration by sea and sky.
The past eighteen months had been traumatic and painful. Now she basked in the warmth and optimism of a single word: remission.
No more looking back, only forward. Her “someday” had arrived.
Lisa Chambers is a Texas girl whose work has also appeared in 101 Words.
“Did you see?” Rose asked.
“Hush,” her mother said. Her sisters gave her the eye.
“That was daddy,” Rose said. He’d been out in the field, standing there. Watching.
Her mother hissed: “Rose, your daddy was buried today…”
But Rose seen him, watching. She said: “Did you hear them crows?”
Victor Kreuiter lives in the midwest.
She said she was okay. She said things were getting better. We laughed. We cried. Thank God for friendships that have no secrets; until she did.
She wasn’t okay and things were not better. She left our friendship, her family, her world. Another piece of my heart went to heaven.
Terri has published her first book, “Three Little Words to Look at Things Differently”. She lives in Bucks County, PA, with her “Hubbles” and their “Fat and Fabulous Calico – Gracie Girl”. She’s working on other writing projects so stay tuned!