By the turn of the 21st century, Cosmo Kincaid had stopped drinking with other men in bars to avoid the embarrassment of having to urinate side by side with an acquaintance. It was not that he had a particularly small penis although it was “nothing to write home about” as his first and only serious girlfriend Doreen had confided to a mutual friend in the summer of 1989.
Hangover Heart
My heart still hurt. A lot. All the time. It was like one of those mouth ulcers that you can’t stop worrying with your tongue, throbbing just beneath my left breast. I had contemplated Googling if getting dumped could lead to actual cardiovascular problems because goddamn the pain was relentless. I’d wake up in the morning with a heart that felt like it was hungover and hungover of the epic kind, the drank-a-bottle-of-whiskey-and-punched-a-bouncer hungover.
Homecoming
By Jareb Collins
The limousine sped along the busy causeway, efficiently navigating the grisly traffic with the pronounced accuracy of its humanoid driver. He leaned back in his seat, allowing the narcotics to ease his trembling nerves. He had no luggage to worry over, no personal effects to concern himself with, and only the clothes he was wearing to call his own. Everything else had been willed to ORI as a condition of his service contract. With two simple signatures, D’Jaron Almandor had become a non-entity, a ghost in the citizen registry. The poisoning had taken almost everything else. What little was left now belonged to ORI.
His Other Half
By S.A. Murison
Although the hospital was just renovated, it still has the same antiseptic smell of all hospitals. No matter how much bleach is used, Patrick still thinks all hospitals smell of urine and death.
Elizabeth has come to see him after four years, and all he wants to do is take her to the hospital. She agrees. She almost always let him lead the way. Today is no different.
Instructions for Assembling a Train Table
By Jack Somers
Step 1:
Lay Panel 1 on its side. Place the left end of Panel 2 (marked with an “L”) against the right end of Panel 1 (marked with an “R”) so that the two panels’ ends are flush. Make sure the screw holes on the ends of Panels 1 and 2 are aligned.
Step 2:
Screw two long screws (L screws) into the holes at the end of Panel 1. Make sure the screws go into the corresponding holes in Panel 2 before screwing them in all the way. Panels 1 and 2 should be arranged to form a right angle. Put a lock washer and a flat washer on each screw before screwing it in. Do NOT put the flat washer on first.
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Shadow Puppets
By Malinda Patterson
i.
She liked to play with shadows on the wall before bed. I’d see her doing it when I walked by the room at night. She’d struggle to get her fingers into the right shapes so that the shadows held the forms she wanted for them.
Sometimes, when I walked by, all I could see was a looming shadow across the wall, stretching across the room. The strangely shaped mouth of a shadow wolf, moving open and shut. When I walked down the hallway the other way, all I could see was her, sitting cross-legged in bed, holding her contorted hand in front of her, staring intently at the wall I couldn’t see.
