Weather Girl
Broad River Review
I didn’t want flash floods or suffering. I just wanted the fog and rain to cloak the terrible, bright beauty of spring a little longer.
Paulson’s Epiphany
Blood & Bourbon
After a violent demonstration in which a group of eco-terrorists surreptitiously dosed the wealthy developer Chadwick Paulson with Empathy-Rx, he outraged investors and appalled his family by calling off the controversial Crystal Falls project. Clearing acres of pristine forest for a gated community, for profit, was a vile act. How could he have considered doing such a thing? He was ashamed. Oh, he had done terrible things to the earth and its people. No more! Now I see, he said, and wept.
Operation Empathy
Orca Literary Journal
Imagine now this frantic empathy extended to all humans and animals you encounter, all sentient beings on the planet. I feel for you is sympathy. Your pain is my pain, that’s nuclear.
Empathy is a superpower.
If you can’t feel it yet, you will. Empathy is coming for us, like a contagion, and I mean that in the best way.
The Empathies
Sinking City
Sunrise to sunset, that was the deal. When darkness descended, their safety could not be guaranteed. After all, the deserted, boarded-up Magic Kingdom of today was a perilous place.
All the Pretty Things
storySouth and Hard to Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic
The grandmother believed in Jesus and in facts. On her bookshelf: the King James Bible, an atlas, an illustrated medical dictionary, a farmers' almanac. No romance novels. No mysteries, no books about art or photography, no poetry. Nothing whimsical. Nothing to entertain.
The grandmother's books instructed her on life and the afterlife. You could read Scripture to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You could look up how to treat a plantar wart, identify a black widow spider, check the fall's frost date. You could locate Guatemala in Central America, where your Baptist church sent missionaries, and Saigon where your son was sent to war.
The Babysitter
Bright Flash Literary Review
After the accident, they kept asking her about Janelle Wolf’s state of mind. Did Mrs. Wolf seem upset that night? Had she been crying? Did she leave the house angry?
In fact, it was Lizzie who’d arrived at Mrs. Wolf’s house bawling like a baby. And it was Mrs. Wolf who’d comforted Lizzie, sat her down, made her a cup of hot tea, the real kind with ground leaves and a tea ball.
The Z Express
The Gateway Review
Harriet 125 sHarriet 125 s in the back booth of the diner, holding a red rose. We called them all Harriet. Anna Nettles was her real name. Married, no children, retired realtor. I never met a Harriet without knowing her profession.
The Sea of Tranquility
The Long Story
As she drives her dead husband’s car down Main Street, Caroline cannot bring herself to go home. She decides to loop through town again. The children are in bed, the baby is asleep. She’ll drive around a little longer.
Cowbird
Southern Humanities Review
He kept his hand on her, yearning for that married skin, pretending it wasn't a luxury.
Geographic Tongue
Hayden’s Ferry Review
I had been thirteen for exactly two weeks when the spot appeared on my tongue. It was the size of a newborn's fist, ragged and pale--eerie as hell.
Pumps
Steel Toe Review
She found the crumpled receipt in his favorite pair of jeans. Silk camisole, fishnet black, garter black, peep-toe pumps red.
Group Dynamics
Phoebe
As he pulled into the parking lot of Jackie Jump-Up’s Pizzeria and Animal Band, Connor realized just how impossible it was to hide desire. He was in love. Stupid with it.
Boots
Emrys Journal
No pool. No cable. No room service. And in the top drawer of the desk (where normal motels had Bibles), someone had left a big book called The Second Sex by some french lady. Just my luck. When I'm trying to expand our relationship and get the doctor to think of something besides sex, I find a kinky how-to manual.