The room phone rang. Diana flinched at the sudden jangling, but the client ignored it. At least, he had started out as a client. Now she wasn’t sure what to call him. “What’s the weirdest thing a guy ever asked for?” “That’s a hard one,” she said. “After ten years of this, what’s weird?” They […]
Lisa I’m walking home from school. The chestnut trees by the railroad track are in bloom. The smell of the flowers is strong, very sweet, almost too sweet. The birds chatter busily but I can’t see them. As I take the turn after the bridge, I have a full view of the valley with the […]
The filth beneath his fingernails might never shift. The grime-coated skin of his palms feels taut. He rubs a patch against the ball of his thumb, but the layers beneath offer the same. He flings a clod of earth towards the cavern’s lip; another bawled obscenity bounces off the walls. He wonders whether his colleagues […]
“Mommy, I need to pee.” Cindy sighs, kills the headlights of her repo truck and turns to face her eight-year-old son in the backseat. Charlie stares slack-jawed at the glowing tablet in his hands, the kind with the protective blue-rubber case around it. A must-have upgrade for clumsy kids and overworked moms. “I asked if […]
The bar above B.B. King’s was Steph’s sanctuary. The blues drifted up from below as did the hazy, not-so-distant glow of Beale St. The world felt so far away, and he thought of his grandmother and church. He wondered if music sounded this way to angels on Sunday morning. That was his guilt getting to […]
The bird seemed to be saying his name. He was sure it was his groggy, half-asleep imagination, but as he stirred awake, he heard it again; clipped, three-syllable chirps saying: Christopher! Christopher! Christopher! He turned in the bed and saw the pale glow of dawn through thin white curtains. He sat his stiff, middle-aged frame […]
“Never place a loaded gun onstage if it isn’t going to go off.” – Anton Chekhov Between murders, suicides, and accidents there were 45,000 firearm deaths in the USA in 2021. What would Chekhov say about introducing 400 million guns onstage? The iron gate to Wally’s Pawn Shop opened with a buzz from an electronic […]
In our 5th outing with the Shotgun Honey Presents anthology series, editor Ron Earl Phillips presents a collection for 20 stories and a dedication to his mother, Carolyn Jean Phillips. All profits will be donated to benefit Breast Cancer research and support. What to Expect inside… The fifth installment of the Shotgun Honey Presents anthology […]
My mom gave me the box for my eighth birthday. Told me to fill it with something sweet, something special. She said it was good to keep things close to the heart, something to remember him by. When daddy died, it was like my world shattered quick as the mirrors he’d break with his fist. […]
I’ve been watching this guy for about a week now. Ever since they announced they were tearing down the Bargain Time. Back in the day, Bargain Time was on of those places that sold a little bit of everything. Tools and clothes and toys and kitchen stuff and chain saws and appliances, all under one […]
“You can’t sit here.” “What’d you say, old timer?” He was a grizzly in a Packers jersey, with wrists the size of my neck. If you fuck this up, I thought, he’s going to kill you and use your femur as a toothpick. “I sai . . . I said you can’t sit here,” I […]
“I already told you, I can’t move it,” said Mooney. He sat at a metal-framed desk. I tossed a newspaper to him. It landed with a thump. “Say’s it’s worth two million.” He glanced at the headline above the fold. “Yeah, Danny, front page.” “Two million,” I repeated. “This thing’s hotter than Carolyn’s ass on […]
