The season of the Wishing Fruit was upon them, the village Wise Woman said. A century had passed since the last one. She gathered the eligible daughters, and of them chose two to uphold the sacred quest. Whosoever ate of the Wishing Fruit would get their happy ending. Britta and Dur appeared most alike, so…
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…
“I want it gone.” The woman says as she lays down on the table. She has a split lip and a big, blue bruise marring half her face. “I don’t care what you have to do. I want it gone.” Ada pauses. “Do you need help?” she asks, “I know some—” “I don’t need help.”…
“It’s rusted!” The Head Clockworker taps the metal hand of the planet-sized clock and then turns to his brother, the Second Clockworker. “Have you not been keeping up on your upkeep duties?” The Second Clockworker shrugs, sending a heatwave to the planets on his mantel as they shift temporarily closer to…
Two vases fall. One containing life. The other, death. It is the easiest test of the god-realm. Reach out a hand. Choose. Sheel fails again, both vases smashing against the crystalline floor. As a child, Sheel could never master the art of sand painting. “Why are there only two colors?” he…
We carry our offerings to the beach by moonlight, us sisters who have stayed behind. We wear hiking boots–or at least closed toed, sporty sandals–to protect our feet from broken oyster shells. Our steps are uncertain: we slip on kelp ribbons and slick rock, brace ourselves against driftwood. We dare not bring a flashlight and…
There came a time when Death decided to take a husband. She was lonely. She knew many souls as they passed to their reward or punishment, but they were never hers. She wanted someone to be hers. She wanted company. There was a young man who spent many nights with her while he cared for…
The headphones—if you could call them that—arrived in a glossy white cardboard box she’d had to sign for. She positioned the box in the circle of artificial sunlight on her kitchen table and readied the camera on the tripod. Hair in place, teeth checked, nostrils clear, she smiled wide and pressed ‘Start Live Video.’ “Hello…
I want you to be happy. That’s what everybody says at the beginning, isn’t it? I believed you when you told me, and I said the same to you. And everybody really wants that, don’t they? Of course they do. But when I wanted to apprentice in witchcraft and hone my natural abilities, you brought…
The small god tears across the universe like time might break. Their being hinges on an axiom: outpace light; see the past. They push until their form is gaseous and all the worlds become one bright luminary ahead, but it’s too little, too slow. When they look back, their star remains dark. The small god…
