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flash fiction

Buffering

Buffering

That morning, Ted began buffering. One minute, he was Ted, coffee cup in hand, talking animatedly about this thing he’d just heard on NPR. The next minute, he was a rainbow-colored pinwheel, spinning. I’d never taken Ted for a Mac guy, so I found that part odd. If...

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Nesting

Nesting

Walls Her nest is too tall by the time Molly realizes she can’t climb in. “I left my tools inside. Should I stop?” She asks her husband, who looks at the wall so hard the plaster cracks. “Put some of those plaster shards around the outside, honey? Like a fence, you...

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Millennial Pink Bread

Millennial Pink Bread

As if covered in invisible glaze, her bread bakes pink. She buys new flour, new yeast, sends it into the oven a butter yellow moon. Still it comes out pink, a darker shade each time.   "It must be the water here. We'll get filtered; don't eat it," her husband...

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Two Identical Strangers

Two Identical Strangers

These days, when I pull up the old photographs, most people still attribute the resemblance between Lydia Lissing and me to the uniforms. My husband, who has always refused to see it, has never gotten past this first reluctance.    “You all look like...

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Me and Eddie on the Boulevard

Me and Eddie on the Boulevard

waiting to cross.  My heart tick, ticking like a stupid clock.  Eddie and his dark hair forest, his blue eye ocean.  Eddie, who is only 15. But to me, he is a man.  In five years, I will catch up.  By then, I will be beautiful.  My hair will be a riverflow. Eddie...

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The Tornado

The Tornado

It was a bright, gray day with no breeze, and she had just finished digging a grave. She’d woken that morning and her turtle had not. How should she feel on this first day without Tulip? Or on all the days without Tulip to come? Sad, probably. But sometimes being with...

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Salve

Salve

Bette was stirring her coffee when she saw the postcard, tucked between a large print arthritis monthly and debt consolidation offers. On the front was a rose window. She turned it over, expecting to learn that Jesus loved her, or God would smite her. Finally taking a...

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Ants

Ants

Maggie has clouds for eyes. Also, she barely talks. Other kids have asked her how those clouds got stuck there, but she just blinks back, clouds churning. My best friend, Bernice Wallers, heard Maggie used to have eyes like ours, that fire ants devoured them while she...

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Centipede of the Year

Centipede of the Year

To the centipede I tried to kick down my drain but refused to go. I see you there. Being better than eighty-two percent of the men I've dated. You creepy-crawled out of the drain. I screamed like an old-fashioned actress. High-pitched and startling. Then, I toed you...

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