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…
I was having the worst kind of day you could have on a long-haul transport—the kind where your fusion reactor is making funny noises. Not ha-ha funny. Threatening to explode funny. Which was kind of ha-ha funny, because once you’ve been alone on a long-haul transport for 473 days with no human contact, everything is…
Kara stared through the rain-fogged window, hoping, praying even, for escape. And, as always, escape appeared in the form of an oak door with an old-fashioned brass knob that twitched in anticipation of her touch like an overeager puppy. “Turn me!” it seemed to say as, for the first time in her seventeen years of…
She could see the ones that had come before her, and after, that had perched in the chair in the waiting room of the auto dealer shop. They superimposed over her body like layers of frosting on a cake, a finger here, a curly bit of hair there. One tapped their hiking boot. One hummed…
The first scales grow on the backs of my hands, flesh-colored and brittle. They itch something awful as they push through my skin, and I pick at them like I would at fresh scabs, although you’re not supposed to. Mother hobbles toward me over the sharp rocks. “Stop it. Don’t you know how lucky you…
The dreams begin with Dixie’s first menstrual cycle: Thick trees with spidery limbs overhanging an almost-rotted boardwalk; moss-like fog giving everything a bluish-grey complexion; a muddy bed on both sides, sizable enough to serve as a reptilian’s den; a lullaby of chorusing crickets… And then: The planks dissolving into a body of water; air hot…
Thunderous clouds block our path. But these clouds can dissipate. Mine can’t. Mine seep into my brain, misting my memories, casting shadows where I need the light to shine brightest. My daughter sits opposite me, squinting as our air taxi bursts through the cloudy veil into the light. It’s always sunny somewhere, I’d whisper to…
He gripped the sword in both hands as he crept up the stairs, wishing for the thousandth time that the prophecy would let him use a gun. The council had been firm on this point, offended he would even ask, but swords didn’t go with windbreakers and jeans. Mentally he reviewed the speech again: I…
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…
Death did not come as a surprise to me. What surprised me was my appearance in death. Gone were my wings and beloved serpents. Instead, my soul had a maiden form with useless, limp, unthinking hair. Hermes appeared to escort me to the Underworld. He was achingly beautiful with the confidence of one who knew…
