“Hellbenders” by Chris McGinley

Sheriff Shelby Hines thought about his own burial. He needed a breather before he started the last leg of a climb that ended at a tumbledown trailer high up on Black Owl Mountain. From his position, he could see the side of the single-wide, a beat-up structure with broad lines of soot under the eaves. […]

“The Myths” by J.D. Smith

One: The gun just went off. People can say what they want, but that doesn’t mean I have to believe them. This is just what people say when they don’t know what they’re doing, or they know damn well what they’ve done and they’re trying to cover their ass. It turns out the same either […]

“Bail, and Other Bonds” by Joseph Hirsch

1. Order of the Purple Heart It was just like the bastard to not tell me he was in town for all this time, and to wait until something serious happened before he got in touch with me. I don’t know how he got my cell number, but he called me at work, while I […]

“The Good Cat” by Vicki Hendricks

I had no name till Dad took me home. Now I answer to Lickrish, Buddy, and Son—when I feel like it. I gave up chasing lizards, squirrels, and birds, and climbing trees, for Dad. None of it was as good as his fingers behind my ears, his soft belly-lap, and the tang of his silky […]

“Easy Go” by Rick Ollerman

Gene McFarlane was a Florida cracker, so called because of the place where he was born, the family he was born to, and the way he lived his life, especially in those days of the early 1980s. His older brother had a lot to do with that life, given that he assumed responsibility for raising […]