Mirae Kim watched the pockmarked surface of the moon get bigger in the window of the spaceship Chandra. Her stomach felt queasy with a mixture of excitement, nervousness, and three days in zero gravity. She had tried to eat the food the crew had given out, but most of it would not stay down. The…
Tag: fiction
King for a Day
King for a Day The whole country watched the television and held their breath. People at work or who were driving just listened to the radio, but they still held their breath. The first King for a Day was about to be announced. The problem had been that no one cared about politics anymore. In…
The Tiktok Talk
The Tiktok Talk Hello son, thanks for coming. Have a seat. Don’t worry, your mother and I just wanted to have a chat with you. No, it’s not the Talk. We’re a bit concerned about your internet habits. No, it’s not about that. Or even that. Oh dear, we didn’t even know about that. We’ll…
Puggle
The puggle felt the sun’s warmth seeping down through the high canopy. He pulled himself out of the burrow ahead of his mother. His mother was digging through the dirt just behind him. The puggle turned and nosed in the fresh dirt, sensing an earthworm just below the surface. He reached towards it but his…
Shy Pain
Shy Pain There are many kinds of pain. There are the small angry pains of a papercut and the dull, lumbering pain of sore muscles after walking home when your mom forgets to pick you up from school again. Pains also live in different places. The pain that happily splashes around in a pot of…
I, Fry Cook
I, Fry Cook Burger Lux felt like the unholy fusion of a crypt and a factory. A craptory, as I called it. There was no dining area, just four drive-thru windows along one side of the building. Behind the windows, a swarm of machines cut and fried and wrapped and packed 24 hours a day,…
Being Prepared
Being Prepared That story of the grasshopper and the ant haunted me. When I moved out to the forest, Thoreau-style, I was determined to BE PREPARED. All summer I cut wood, stacking it against the walls until the whole house was surrounded by piled firewood, five feet deep, then ten feet. By fall, the house…
Voodoo Ergonomics
Voodoo Ergonomics “Hey, check it out,” Hyo-Won said, pulling me into the corner of the classroom. She reached into her bag and took out a small doll. It was crudely made, with big, uneven stitches. “Nice,” I said. “Did your little sister make it for you?” “No!” She smacked my arm. “It’s a voodoo doll….
The People Watcher
Nobody really sees me. I’m just the boy cleaning up spilled French fries and wiping spilled ketchup and nugget dipping sauce off the tables. There is a high level of invisibility with that job. But I see them. It is like watching snapshots of other worlds coming in. You see them for an instance and…
The Prisoner
The Prisoner As the sun heads up to cross the horizon my eyes bore into its burning glow. It peeks through the buildings and washes down the threatening glimmer of the sky that keeps me up at night. As I stare through the window the prickling sting in my eyes grows sharper. Time stretches, drawn-out…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 