Category: Fiction Works
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Spring Solace
I walk to local park near my apartment. I settle in, sinking into the grass, feeling enough distance from others that I peel my mask off. I inhale the sweet smell of daisy weeds scattered beside my blanket. The earthy, homey smell of soil beneath my bones. Doesn’t the smell of the seasons transport you…
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Endodonticts and Werewolves
Getting out of the house in 2020 is rare, which is why I took my 3 PM root canal as a social outting. I arrive freshly showered, my hair shimmering with silver and purple strands from my violet shampoo. The receptionist kindly tries to make small talk about my hair. “Is that purple shampoo you…
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Mole
“If I have to lose you, I will be devastated.” I say to the small brown oval on my left forearm. Last spring my aunt who worked at a skin clinic, stopped me mid-sentence. She gasped, grabbing my arm, studying the large mole. “Oh honey, you need to get this checked out. See these edges?…
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Rust
I slap purple lotion all over my freshly shaven legs, my pores smelling like spilt wine. “Be there in ten.” Dash texts. He is the “cool guy” at school, the moody senior who jumps over flaming fire pits, his rubber soles in a constant state of melting, drinks whiskey from its neck and drives a…
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Bloom
On Monday, I buy my first record. We play it, while sipping a bottle of Cabernet. The haunting tone tries to cut through the patient space, opening the door for old ghosts to appear. White face, holes for eyes, looming to leave me with another cut. But the door doesn’t open. How could it? In…
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Seasick
I pluck him from the Atlantic. I find him drifting in a metal trap, his legs scattering back and forth. He wants a taste of air, I want someone who wears a shell. He is my Maryland blue crab. … Five years later, he is drying up. I can see his gills expanding, aching for…
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Bear
Jacob was leaving and I had no say in the matter. “Every positive trait I have is because of you and every negative trait you have is because of me. That’s why I have to leave… it’s for your own good.” Three days later, I strip our pictures off the walls, leaving small holes in…
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Lobster
“Let’s go to Maine.” He said through a text from across the country. We had broken up over a year ago, yet the text lingered in my mind. My thumb hesitated over my phones keyboard, holding onto a response. I pictured the two of us in a creaking house on the coast of Maine. The…
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Beetle Boy
The fire crackles outside, spitting knots of wood at her feet. He stands across the fire. Black jacket on, the hood tied tightly around his head. Blue, eyes dart around the snow, noticing every swig of beer, bend of a slippery jacket, log falling out of place in the pit.
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Spanish Rice
Gapped teeth always reminded me of him. The space between his two front teeth big enough I could slip my pinky through.
treatswords 