“They say you are the one who can attend to my needs.” A cloaked figure waits at my doorstep. Behind her, twilight drags its dark, feathered wing across the horizon. A fortnight ago, the sun might have lingered. But the seasons are turning; soon, there will be frost. For now, we endure only bitter winds,…
The white bear’s favorite color is green. I know this because the first thing it does every evening before dinner is thrust its warm, wet nose through the doors of the bureau and take my mother’s dress, my mother’s lucky green dress, in its teeth. Some nights, seams scream and tear, fabric fluttering from the…
The bell chimed as the front door swung open. My head snapped up from my crossword to find a man about my age with the most striking face and killer jawline. Fuck, that’s a shame. He wore a bomber jacket, jeans with a distressed knee, and black Chucks. From what I could tell, he bore…
“Where were you when you got your superpowers?” It’s the age-old question, isn’t it? Me, I was at the grocery store, buying a black forest cake and sauerkraut for the wife, who was pregnant at the time. I’m at the age where the stores are playing my jam. I’m also at the age where I…
Gentle rain fell the day I visited the ocean for the first time. The wind turbines in the distance were barely visible through the thin, silver sheets that fell from the sky. They stood like sentinels, clad in gleaming white armor against the looming horizon, arms outstretched as if to hold off a coming storm….
On the day Kudryavka met The Universe, she had an itchy nose. It had started the moment she stepped into the capsule. Something about the pressurised air always made her bristle, and the cramped space made all the vibrations louder against her skin. Her nose itched, and she resisted the urge to fidget, staying still…
Lily glances down at the handwritten letter. Her hand trembles as she sips lychee wine. The drink cools her throat, tingling her wrinkled skin. She recalls the day her granddaughter was born. A cherubic baby, Mei weighed ten pounds and three ounces. Lily believes Mei’s size brought good luck and prosperity upon the family. Even…
Once a year, my mother catches the cosmic bus from Over There and we meet at the parking lot of the cemetery where she’s buried. The reincarnation insurance scheme she bought into has turned out to be the real deal. Every year Over There, she becomes a year younger and she’ll keep aging in reverse…
Day twenty-seven. Minah wakes to a tepid dawn. Amay Patel’s skies are the colour of weak tea, the air pregnant with humidity. As sleep falls away, her heartbeat rises. She switches on her tablet and checks the news. Nothing. Her breath leaves in a knife-cut rush. Then, as usual, she opens the hologram. Jade’s pixelated…
I hefted the bulky envelope and stared at the return address. Wellsley college. Well, damn. They don’t send heavy packets to rejects. I didn’t even need Cousin Lei’s red-envelope-telepathy to tell me what it said. The rest of us held our red envelopes up to the light to see what bills were inside. Cousin Lei…
