After signing the divorce papers, I go to my local pet store. Gerbils and hamsters and rabbits skitter behind thin bars.

“Anything bigger?”

*

Within weeks, I’ve moved from my high-rise to a log cabin. At night, I howl along with the coyotes, each of us free, each of us wild.

Laura Besley (she/her) enjoys exploring big topics in small spaces. She has published four micro- & flash fiction collections, most recently: Sum of her PARTS (V. Press, 2025). She is currently a Creative Writing PhD student at the University of Leicester, an editor with Flash Fiction Magazine and JMWW, and runs The NIFTY Book Club. Having lived in the Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong, she now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea.