One-Sentence Stories
19 Years Young
by
Ben White
Bean bag chairs and Solo cups, they drown in each other like so many rounds of Beirut, ping-pong balls rimming cups like misplaced bombs, their clean medical record like an innocent family in the wrong terrorist-occupied apartment building, and think: no matter, the morning is so far away.
Note
by
John Spiers
She asked me did I want to read it and before thinking I said No and nothing more and while on my way back I cursed myself hissing Of course you do you idiot you idiot what fool wouldn't I upon reaching home being kissed by my dog wife and children and settling in for the night still did but felt that I could live with myself for having not–but, soon, this, too, troubled me.
Untitled
by
Benjamin Smith
They gave him one dose: a digital pill that launched Mr Oi into epileptic seizures, and during that time the room became cold and he believed the snow that would overcome him would be nano-snow, and who would notice but he (hint—your nano-brain knows).
Untitled
by
Jody Brooks
Her children flew junebugs while she watched from the kitchen—those iridescent beetles tailing kite strings like banner ads behind vacation planes, tempting her to leave.
No Reason
by
Ethel Rohan
The green champagne bottle warmed on the shelf, label erased by the sun, gold foil top lost its glint, neck choked and bubbles deadened, holy unnecessary.
Unemployment
by
Susan McCarty
At first I could not discern if the hair was my hair, or a hair shed by the cook, who was not wearing her hairnet that day, until the diner pointed it out to me and, upon further inspection, I saw the hair was mine but, in hindsight, should not have eaten it in front of him.
Floor
by
Nathaniel Missildine
Out of the ground came a goddamn mole, a thing so large and dark with bare hands the size of a wide receiver's and a pair of no-eyes that seemed to say to the two of us standing, but now floored on our yard "I've been right under your feet this whole time but I'm just the beginning of what you miss."
badbadbad
by
Jesús Ángel García
Being close to her, only just, made me feel needed, and there was the potential for violence.
Untitled
by
Jesse Tangen-Mills
The Phwoah used phytoestrogen to make babies; I saw them sex.
Untitled
by
Jaclyn Dwyer
We turned on the news as they were finishing up a story about a cougar cruise, and my mother said, “Geez, isn’t that dangerous having cats on a ship like that, all the way out at sea? What if they get loose?” and I had to tell her, “Mom, a cougar is a woman like you.”
How We Met (Eat Your Heart Out Angela)
by
Brendan O'Brien
I met him at the city zoo as he watched two old elephants fuck, one ramming methodically into the other, like a bully pounding his palm, and as he gave me a rundown of the reasons he was where he was, I smiled, knowing my sister could never top this no matter how hard she tried.
Untitled
by
Zachary Cole
All afternoon I watched that librarian dance, and felt no better about my job prospects when she stopped.
Palette
by
Brian Beatty
In his watercolors she always looked fat and intoxicated.
The Selection
by
Zach Wolff
Wearing the red heels she saunters alongside the counter top; playfully runs the manicured tips of her fingernails through the scattered mini-bics, past a skull-and-boned-Zippo, then stops at an open box of matches, smiles, pulls one out, then lights his cigarette.
Smoking Ban
by
Kyle Sundby
In that alleyway I was dying for a cigarette but he placed his hands around my throat and assured me I was wrong.