Betty Rides Again

by Anne R. Allen

On the Monday morning after her silver wedding anniversary, Betty Jo Stevenson found a lump in her breast. She was taking her morning shower when she felt it--just a little thin--like a nasty pebble, stuck beneath the spongy layer of flesh in the underside of her left breast. Why hadn't she noticed it before? Read more.

Dog Out of Water

by Lisa Plantico Carlsson

Abbie sat very still, hands folded in her lap. She opened and shut her eyes with deliberate blinks, as though trying to transform the cup of blue liquid that sat before her in its Fred Flinstone jelly glass. The rim of blue just met Fred's dark hair, and she watched the dark patch bob there like a drowning carcass. Blue. Bright blue. The faint smell of chlorine hung around the glass.  Read more.

Two Little Words

by Adam Jeffries Schwartz

My mother practiced a kind of Chinese Communism; you
will agree with the state--meaning her--or you will be
re-educated.

In one memorable twenty-four hour perod in June 1974
the issue was washcloths: blue or yellow (camp
colors). I was ten years old and wasn't going to use
either color. Read more.