Fiction
The Reincarnated One
1956 was an especially poor monsoon year, the drought which had gripped our region intermittently over the past few years was now starting to take..
Section
Short Fiction
Showing 217-240 of 310 pieces
Fiction
Arcs of Memory
I No one in Bodhi’s village had expected an ascent of the Mount Everest. It alarmed his mother. Men had trespassed on an abode of..
Fiction
Remarkable Fall
On an otherwise ordinary autumn day, I killed a three-year-old boy. One might think that the air held some hint of warning, but it didn’t—just..
Fiction
To The Horizon
The wind blows the dust and dry dirt across the plains, ceaselessly lifting it from the earth only to set it down again elsewhere. The..
Fiction
Rabbit Bone Pink
“One of us should live here some day,” Dinesh says, gazing up at the ceiling in the living room of 42 RC. His sister, Sathya,..
Fiction
They’ll say it was an Honest Mistake
“Yo, J, Got a light?” I pulled the convenient store lighter from my pocket with finger cutoff gloves. My nails were blackened from the shop,..
Fiction
Summers of Solitude
I grew up afraid of asking questions, afraid of being curious. It still affects the way I live. Any time I crossed that line as..
Fiction
Rumsey’s Watch
Walter looked at his watch, the warm sun reflecting across its silver blue dial into his eyes. The second hand appeared to be moving in..
Fiction
William
At 11:45PM on a February Friday, William dusts the snow from the shoulders of his full-length, dark wool business coat and enters the office of..
Fiction
Excuse Me, Sir, May We Invade Your Home?
For Roald DahlIn heaven, or wherever he may have gone Laszlo Oxbreast bound old and rare books. His work required the utmost caution and particularity,..
Fiction
Violation
She’d been worried about her daughter all day. The little girl’s temperature had risen to 38° and she’d called the doctor. Now the child was..
Fiction
You in the Dark
After school, you play with Mindy. She lives two houses away and has a big brother. He’s tall and lanky and if you knew the..
Fiction
Wait
Randal didn’t know that it wasn’t normal to wait until your father got home from the bar before you could have dinner. It wouldn’t..
Fiction
Big Dusty
To Russell, always called ‘Dusty’ since the day he was born, his father was a big man; not just big but BIG. He had big..
Fiction
The Water
They sat across from one another at the cheap station café. Trayfuls of tea, carelessly poured into narrow-waisted teacups, hovered around them. They were each..
Fiction
Friends of Ferry Point Park
Condolences, the card read and—she flipped it over—nothing else. Tara Contreras opened the door to her apartment and, without meaning to, thought: Better late than..
Fiction
I Know You Rider
Ryan and Walker stood in the doorway of the railcar as the train chugged through a crossing in Homerville, Georgia. The town, like many along..
Fiction
The Brick
There is a photograph of my mother standing in front of the chain link fence around the Chevron Oil Plant in Richmond, several minutes before…
Fiction
Pieces
It happened first in the shower. Sasha stood, scrubbing her body, her mind occupied on the day, on when the man might be answering her…
Fiction
A Life, A Book, A Chance
Veronika usually woke a few minutes before the church bells rang. This day she had been up for hours, tossing and turning in her small…
Fiction
I, etcetera
I suppose a certain kind of Calcutta novel can be written. By a certain kind of Southern Avenue Calcuttan such as me. These are read…
Fiction
An Ambiguous Weekend
Richard’s clay sculptures could say a great deal about him. Luckily, he did not sculpt very often. He spent most of his time bagging groceries…
Fiction
Kulfi
Pushpa did not know about the Gospels. In fact, she barely knew anything about Jesus. But she would have appreciated one of his teachings—to be…
Fiction
Alizarin Crimson
Mr. Hartley took a small canvas the size of a notebook from the table at the front of the classroom. “You’ll apply the alizarin first….