• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

Ghost Parachute

A Literary Magazine

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archives
  • About
  • Submissions
  • Blog

Branch

September 1, 2022 By Meg Pokrass

Branch

She told the doctor that she was tired of trying to fly. She was a scarecrow since the accident, her legs were made of straw. She could limp very well but fly she would not. This would never now change, and she wanted to fly all the time. He sat there, picking at his beard. Not knowing what to say, not knowing what else he could do. She liked jostling his leather chair, like a cloud she could ride.

The lights in his office were calm and low. He didn’t say anything when she spoke about flight, but she could see that his arms were moving. Those are wings under his shirt, she thought, the doctor is probably a bird.

 “I’m afraid to say that I’m done here,” she said, looking at the clock, thinking of the weeks ahead with no doctor’s chair to perch on, no silent visits.

“It’s funny stuff, this wanting to fly,” he said, “when you think about it.”

That was his answer.

She stood up and leaned against her cane, the stick felt like a new kind of problem. Here at the end of her branch, she wanted to let him know that someday, if he ever felt ready, he could fly back to her.

About Meg Pokrass

Meg Pokrass is the author of seven flash fiction collections, a novella-in-flash, and is the two-time recipient of the Blue LIght Book Award. Her work has been internationally anthologized in two Norton Anthology Readers, Best Small Fictions 2018 and 2019, the Wigleaf Top 50 List, and her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines including Washington Square Review, Electric Literature, Tin House, Wigleaf, Jellyfish Review and Smokelong Quarterly. She currently serves as Flash Challenge Editor at Mslexia Magazine, Festival Curator for Flash Fiction Festival, U.K. (Bristol) Co-Editor of Best Microfiction 2020, and Founding/Managing Editor of New Flash Fiction Review.

Artist Credit:

Orlando native Kaylan Stedman is an illustrator out of Torrance, California. With a Master’s in TESOL, she teaches English by day and pursues her passion for art and illustration at all other waking moments. For more art, peruse past Ghost Parachute issues, follow her Instagram, @naryakal (K. S. Illustrations), or support her on Etsy at www.etsy.com/shop/ksillustrationsstore.

Footer

From The Blog

Best Small Fictions Nomations

January 21, 2023 By Brett Pribble

The Storming of Rome by Slawka G. Scarso Juicy Fruit by Katie Coleman You Were Only Waiting for This Moment to Arrive by Kathy Fish Eddie by David James Poissant Something Fierce and Unnamed by Tommy Dean

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in