by Constance Malloy | Dec 10, 2019 | CNF, Issue Twelve
I’ve never been in a tornado. But the landscapes of my childhood dreams were ravaged by them. Brought on by the trauma in my waking hours, my tornado dreams were prolific, and proved to be, prophetic. The first, an EF-1, to spin its massive cone into my dreams, did so...
by Tommy Vollmann | Dec 10, 2019 | CNF, Issue Twelve
I met Joe Nuxhall a few weeks after my fifteenth birthday. His hands were gnarled, and he spoke as though his mouth was half full of marbles, but he was sharp and funny as hell. I was only a few months younger than he was when he made his Major League debut....
by Dan Crawley | Dec 10, 2019 | Fiction, Issue Twelve
Nick and Crystal once talked about everything: their fantasies, their future plans and dreams. Longing and indebtedness and contentment and obligation. Now it is a lazy Sunday morning, both of them wearing boxer shorts and tees. She sits in the lotus position on the...
by Steven Lebow | Dec 10, 2019 | Fiction, Issue Twelve
He smelled of hemp and strangled throats, but then again, no one ever imagines him that way. The First Century was a splendid time to be alive. A splendid time, indeed. The Pax Romana, the Roman Age of Peace, held sway over all the living and all the dead.. The Roman...
by Christopher Linforth | Dec 10, 2019 | Fiction, Issue Twelve
To prove our love, we strung the tightrope across the backyard. We climbed on at opposite ends. The boughs of the two elms sagged with our weight. We steadied ourselves against the trunks; we each goaded the other to go first. Neither of us would let go of the...
by Jamie J. Kelly | Dec 10, 2019 | Fiction, Issue Twelve
I study my frame in the mirror. I admire its slender lines, gilded edges and the ornate corners that curl and spiral in a decadent flourish. The frame is new. Tim said it was too expensive and there’s no guaranteed bonus this year with the way things are. Barbara...
