Category Archives: Fiction

The Secret Name

Luz Divina, Plaza Drake, June 1991 It’s just like Chiara to drop out of the sky, after three months who knows where. She could’ve called me yesterday, at least. She shows me no consideration—as usual. Que falta de respeto! Like … Continue reading

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Shine

Back home, the sunrise lingers quietly over the sea. Rays of peach and yellow mingle within sandy alleyways, snickering between chalked-up buildings. The hot knots of our streets relax in the warmth and in the doorway of our house Mami … Continue reading

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Virgilio

The days before we moved Mami visited our neighbor old Virgilio. She went over every morning after braiding her hair. Virgilio had many books, but he was going blind: sometimes he couldn’t read. Pobre viejito feo y flaco. Mami brought … Continue reading

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From The Ashes

The beak is so slick and beautiful you’d forget it’s about to bore into a virgin. Dig right through her for £12.50 a night. Peck her up, munch her hard, inflict the horror of a writer’s preoccupations. They must’ve choreographed … Continue reading

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Swimming in the Middle East

The morning you tell your mother about the trip to the Middle East, you feel the sensation that you know so well: like you could piss yourself at any moment. Such is the agitation that you can feel a splash … Continue reading

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Alphabet Song

A is for… Another long day The young man looked out, the street below a haven of double-glazed tranquility, muted traffic racing by with the rest of life. “A B C D E F G…” sang the kids television show … Continue reading

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Morgan

Impatient, Morgan waited at the station platform, leaning over the yellow warning strip to see if the train lights had appeared in the tunnel. A man spoke. “Hey, when you jump—take me with you.” She flinched and turned to him. … Continue reading

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Epidermis

It’s fourteen minutes until closing time when the bell above the diner’s front door lets out a shriek. Damn, the waitress thinks. She rolls her eyes into her head, far enough to see her brain’s pink frills, and jerks off … Continue reading

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Time Zones

When I first learned about time zones—how you can force the clock back a few hours by hopping on a plane—I was so young and ingenuous that for a brief moment I really believed in time travel. My dreams of … Continue reading

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Falling Away

My body’s starting to fail me – my back aches and I’m exhausted most of the day. I can still climb the stairs, but my wife’s not there waiting for me anymore, squatting on the landing, tugging on a loose … Continue reading

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Bad at Tennis

We had three tennis coaches in one season. Ms. Marmian was retiring, which was fine with us. We called her a cunt behind her back. It was a word we liked throwing around because we liked the weight of it. … Continue reading

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Relief

Rolly is waiting for me, front of the store. I’m stealing again, and he knows it. I slip a travel-sized toothbrush into my pocket and hustle Rolly out the door. If you’re good, if stealing is your life, you know … Continue reading

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My Dog-in-Law Thinks I’m Crazy

“How long you been dating my master?” he asks me over coffee one day. My dog-in-law learned how to talk and hold a coffee cup from me. “I don’t know,” I squirm. “Long, okay? It’s been long.” “So you’re gonna … Continue reading

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Jenny is Forgetting

More and more these days. Her glasses, her wallet, her keys. Her husband, their marriage, her vows. She ends up somehow with Eduardo. Upside down and inside out. They meet in a faded motel on smoky Wednesdays. One Wednesday, though, … Continue reading

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Relationship Mechanics

Gerry from over the road has married his car. ‘It’s a beautiful colour,’ Julia tells him at the coronation street party, which I’ve been dreading all week. ‘I hope you make each other very happy.’ ‘Thank you,’ says Gerry. ‘It’s … Continue reading

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Elect Franz Kafka

It was tongue in cheek, the sign I saw on Calle Los Libres that said FRANZ KAFKA PARA GOBERNADOR 2023 – 2028. But before I could register its humor, the thought of Franz Kafka as Governor gave me the first … Continue reading

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Drowning in the Perfumed Sea

It feels like three a.m., but maybe it’s not that late. Faint snores float room to room through the cool night air. The rain that started while I bought bread at the last open market stall still falls on the … Continue reading

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T-shirts

He was complaining about an old shirt and how it wouldn’t fit anymore. From the bed, she watched the baby blue fabric stretch tightly across his shoulders like latex. When he lifted his arms—he had such muscular arms now, smoothed … Continue reading

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Breakfast Quesadilla

On Monday morning I decided to kill myself. To do this I would leave my wife sleeping in bed, sneak upstairs past my sleeping dog, fill a water bottle and walk to the canal. When there, I would remove my … Continue reading

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After the Freeway

Sandy woke up hot. The sheets were sticking to her legs, and she could smell her own sweat. She stared at the light fixture in the ceiling of the trailer. It was a big rectangular plastic box, spotted dark brown … Continue reading

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Sleeping Around

Karen woke to flourishing petals on her shoulder and the warmth of a distant sea. Eyes open – a vision of a man leaning into a pillow, calling a satellite near the moon. Karen was glad and yet she didn’t … Continue reading

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Money’s Too Tight to Mention

Don rings the benefits hotline and listens to the Muzak for fifteen hours because the rhythm transports him to a landscape he cannot recall. Then he becomes mad – yes, he has nothing else to do, yes, he’s a masochist … Continue reading

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I’ve Lost My Phone and It’s Not Good

I lose my phone, and I begin my search in the local pizzeria across the street where I ate the night before, feasting on Kalamata olives and licking chilli oil off my plate. I quiz the waitress but she gives … Continue reading

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Oxygen Masks

The mothers are stretched balloons, coughing thorns and dominoes into the bathroom sink. The queue for oxygen snakes around the block where banks sell raincoats, and sub-Saharan dust licks ice cream in the sun. Each baby is deformed—the decade has … Continue reading

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0. Pretty Things Before A Sad Summer

A spider—orange heart on his round back and green spots below his eyes; sitting on the electrical box by the soccer field. Weaving, building his tunnels like he has decided to live there forever. Watching the sunset sweep past each … Continue reading

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