Month: May 2021

Rafi and I had been friends for years, but there were still a few things I hadn’t figured out about her. I knew she was a fellow nerd—we’d been playing Dungeons and Dragons together for five years—and I knew she liked cats and sci-fi, and worked for an architectural firm. I knew “Rafi” was short for Rafeeqa, and that her […]

Mindy Beckman lay quietly in bed waiting. She knew that he would soon be here. As she looked out into the total blackness of her bedroom, her mind went back to the very first time that she had seen him appear in her room. She was only seven. She didn’t know how old he was then, or if, in fact, […]

Cindy Beckman lay quietly in bed waiting. She knew that he would soon be here. As she looked out into the total blackness of her bedroom, her mind went back to the very first time that she had seen him appear in her room. She was only seven. She didn’t know how old he was then, or if, in fact, […]

As best I can recall now, the whole life-changing incident occurred in spring time. You’ll have to forgive my blurred memory. At this distance, it becomes difficult to remember exact dates. Anyway, on with the whole sordid story. So, let me just tell my story, and if you want to alter anything to make it fit together better, be my […]

Bangkok, Krung Thep, the metropolis, had so many foreigners, too, or, as the Thais called them: “farangs.” Not that she’d never seen foreigners, in person; she’d seen a few farangs, sure, but only a handful, usually graying, overweight, with far younger Thai wives, often Thai wives who’d been single mothers. Such as one of her neighbors, Bu…

Ever since I’d been promoted into the Sexually Frustrated Department, I’d seen more offices of the vast skyscraper where Vick Industries filled its floors, than I ever had as an ad executive, and I’d only been in this department for a week. The worst thing about my new department is its location, near the mail room downstairs. The space is […]

I go camping in the woods as often as possible because I like to embrace the natural world, far away from the urban congestion and odors man has wrought on the world. I’m just a guy who doesn’t fit in with the city life, so I escape for my solitude as often as I can. Usually every weekend in the […]

Jordan found the ad in a local newspaper. “Needed: Healthy male, age 18-30, for testing of a classified robotic prototype, $400 dollar stipend for selected volunteers” with some half-assed stock photo design and a number to call for information. Jordan’s friends laughed when he told them about it, and warned him that it sounded like human trafficking or at the […]

“That was one hell of a party,” he muttered as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He looked around as he stood. The walls were eggshell white, two walls held paintings of bowls of fruit and flowers. In one corner stood a pressed wood wardrobe of the quality one would expect to find […]

The hiss of the hydraulics was the first sensation she experienced. Some sort of fluid drained outside the bag she lay in, settling her gently on the bottom. The bottom of what? The light was filtered by the opaque plastic sheeting, a fact she was grateful for as her eyes struggled to readjust. She tried to raise her arms but […]