Ghost Parachute

Luli counted birds outside her living room window while waiting for her lover. Eight goldfinches, ten, almost a dozen. Greedy creatures elbowing a worn green feeder. She used her pinky finger to iron a wrinkle on her canary pencil skirt. He doesn’t like wrinkles, especially not on his women. Her twentieth birthday loomed; she was […]

Dear sir or madam (or bot), I am writing in regard to the application I submitted for the nighttime security guard position at the Muncie Square Mall. I am definitely highly qualified for this job, having worked last summer a security officer for a parking garage downtown. In this letter, would like to offer you […]

Cinnamon and Bill meet on Sleepee, a dating app for insomniacs to connect and commiserate. Cinnamon’s profile has the prompt My most exhilarating memory to which she answers Ziplining in Costa Rica! So Bill decides they will zipline to Reservoir Dogs, the local hot dog spot where everything on the menu is named after a […]

Ted told me—no joke—that his landlord’s wife got a head injury and woke up from her coma a completely different person. Never met the guy or his wife, but Ted said she was clinically dead for something like four or five minutes, but, when they revived her, she was fine health wise. It was just […]

I was young and new to the city. This was in the days when jobseekers circled postings in a special section of the newspaper. Xlint oppty 4 self-starter. Gal Friday AMs only! Exec-cutie for fun sales dept. I was early, in my pastel suit and nylon hose. My borrowed shoes were loose, so I had […]

It’s 1954 or 55, and we’re living in a small midwestern town, maybe it’s Tauton or South Linville, I can’t be certain. These flashes of memory are like clouds skittering across the sun. I can’t look straight at them without squinting. Yet I see my six-year-old self, locked inside a dusty old Plymouth sold to […]