This Story Is a Gun

This Story Is a Gun

  “Deer herds form quickly for protection from predators” -Riverwoods Preservation Council Back then, you would have mistaken me for a happy person. Bright, cheerful. The kind of young woman you wanted your lost-in-his-dreams-of-moneyed-youth son to marry. You...
A Deceptively Simple Word Problem

A Deceptively Simple Word Problem

    I have always enjoyed a deceptively simple word problem. When used in this context, the adverb could mean both that the word problem is deceptive in pretending simplicity, but also that it is simple despite its deceptively intimidating appearance. The...
You Haven’t Said No

You Haven’t Said No

    Hiram had been avoiding the gay son of his recently deceased friend Tru Rasmussen. First, prior to his friend’s passing, he had run into the young man, Eldon, and his fiancé, Jasper, when they were registering for wedding gifts at Wal-Mart. At the time,...
Five Stories

Five Stories

  Moment of Truth Look, it was a moment of truth, that’s the point. It was the kind of absolute and pure moment where everything would get streamlined and steered in a particular direction that, at least for the time being, would be final. We’d been going for a...
Artifacts Worth Saving

Artifacts Worth Saving

    THIS STORY WAS A FINALIST FOR THE 2017 NEIL SHEPARD PRIZE     The night before Elsa left, she and her husband, Landon, discussed the difference between azure and powder blue. Decisions had to be finalized before she left to do archaeological...
A Girl Walks into a Bar

A Girl Walks into a Bar

    THIS STORY WAS A FINALIST FOR THE 2017 NEIL SHEPARD PRIZE     A girl walks into a diner but she wishes it was a bar. A girl walks into a diner for breakfast. A blinking red light in the window says “Eat Good Food.” She wishes it was...