Ghost Parachute

This kid is trying to tell me that Brontosaurus didn’t really exist. He wears a black t-shirt halfway to his knees, skinny like they all are. These kids get bussed in from tri-county or the group homes because a day at Suffolk City Dino Park is a cheap way to occupy restless eyes and destructive […]

There is a woman walking slowly across the yard, a feed bucket in each hand. She’s wearing polka dot slippers and a faded housecoat, the quilted kind. Her gait suggests age. She’s not old, though her hair is unwashed and unkempt, her face slack and lined. The chickens come running. “Hi, chickens,” she mumbles in […]

It was a nondescript building on a nameless street in a forgotten part of town. The tattered flyer in his hand, faded and muddy as if a copy of a copy of a copy, indicated that this was the place. His desires screamed yes, but his body was tense with apprehension. C’mon, Kevin. You know […]

Every year at 3 a.m. on his birthday, we take the president up. He goes like everyone else: blindfolded and half-asleep. It’s only after the rotors spin us up through the clouds and we’re gone at least 20 clicks from home that the bag comes off his head. There’s always a moment of suspicion, then […]

Birds landed in the night trees. I don’t like birthdays, Lila said. A crabapple fell on the tin roof of the neighbor’s shed. My hands feel like jelly, I said. The smell of blown-out candles lingered on my clothes for days after I stayed the night. Lila and I had lit eighteen candles, stood them […]

There were things that they liked about me but many other things that they did not like. My toes, for example. My toes were not optimal, to say the least. Especially the ones right next to my big toes. Those so-called “pointer toes” were for some reason much longer than the rest of my toes, […]

Name: Once, when she was a little girl, she asked her mom, what’s your middle name? Her mom had answered that it was the same as hers and that every eldest daughter in their family had the same middle name. It was simple magic, and she would use it to slip into the skin of the […]

Jeremiah tries so hard to care. Pop-Pop once took him fishing and told him ghost stories and taught him all the good swear words when Jeremiah’s mother wasn’t listening. But that Pop-Pop is rarely at home when Jeremiah looks into his grandfather’s eyes. He mourns for him and digs deep for a patience beyond his […]

I wrapped my hand tight around the bus stop pole, trying to squeeze the pinpricks under my skin out of my body. Everyone around me was talking and staring while I was stimming, every subtle sound grating harder against my eardrums. Pointing and staring, voices grew louder until I was slamming my hand into the […]