Fiction

There was such a strain on the silence between them after he'd eaten that it had to be broken. `Maybe we should never have given up the farm and come here. Even though we had no one to pass it on to,' Michael said, his head of coarse white hair leaning away from his wife…

A white thing floated near the wharf, like a tangle of intestines with a single wrinkled eye in the middle and a mouth. Three couples in weekend clothes stood in a row and frowned at its undulations with intense silent interest, then dislike. "What is it?" said one of the wives. The boat cast off…

Once she had been a photographer. Now as she hears the shutter click across the room, too loud, Helen wonders why it should be her husband who takes these family pictures when she is the one with the skills. She knows what the finished pictures will show: a stylishly thin woman, her four handsome sons…

It was because of the security measures at the airports – inspection of luggage and checking for metals – that I decided to take the train instead of the airplane. This way I could buy the Saturday night special here at home, and take it with me. I have no way of knowing how I…

– I just read a learned article on Nutrition and Behavior and my intelligence was severely dimmed, darkened and demonized. – I am trying, was trying to help Cynthia write a paper summarizing the last six months of our romance for the Ford Foundation. The coverup story is about Nutrition and Neurological Disturbances but I…

Report: Bonnie Brown-committed 1971, age fifteen. Lesbian, user of hallucinogenics, murder suspect. Note: Dr. Frond-This patient has refused to see any of our doctors since she was admitted three years ago. Because of her supposed potential violence she has to be on complete security. She recently requested to have an appointment with a doctor, and…

`Over there, Bart, on the other side of the street,' Ella said, pointing to a vacant house, its uncurtained windows pasted with placards. It was an evening in early spring and they were strolling back along Rathmines Road in the last of the light, going towards Ella's house, which was just off the main road….

It was a bad time. Billy Boy Watkins was dead, and so was Frenchie Tucker. Billy Boy had died of fright, scared to death on the field of battle, and Frenchie Tucker had been shot through the neck. Lieutenants Sidney Martin and Walter Gleason had died in tunnels. Pederson was dead and Bernie Lynn was…

"Hi, honey." "Oh, Daddy," Carolyn said. "It took you so long. Where are you calling from?" "The hospital," he said. "Where else? I haven't stuck my nose out of this cotton-picking place since eight o'clock this morning, and I don't feel like going home." "Well, how is she?" "I think she knew me, but she…