[Fiction] Two couples, living in a “Yooper town,” dreaming of a better life: Craig is sweet and smarter than he or anyone else gives him credit for. After a long day of work, he smells like sweat and sap. He likes to read Decadent literature, especially Oscar Wilde. I’m the only one who knows that. […]
fiction
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Gravity at the End of the World
[Fiction] Two couples, living in a “Yooper town,” dreaming of a better life: Craig is sweet and smarter than he or anyone else gives him credit for. After a long day of work, he smells like sweat and sap. He likes to read Decadent literature, especially Oscar Wilde. I’m the only one who knows that. […]
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[Fiction, not single-page] A lawyer can’t stop walking: He worked past ten most nights, and most nights found him sufficiently absorbed in something that required only the turn of a page or the click of a mouse — too little activity for the sensors to register. The lights frequently switched off on him. He’d look […]
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[Fiction, not single-page] Life as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, and a trip to the tear-gas tent: “Do you love the army?” my commander asks. “Yes and no, I mean I definitely believe that it is important in a country like ours to serve in the army, but I hope for peace, and […]
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[Fiction] Taking a trip to Times Square: Ginny had promised to take the girls to M&M World, that ridiculous place in Times Square they had passed too often in a taxi, Maggie scooting to press her face to the glass to watch the giant smiling M&M scale the Empire State Building on the electronic billboard […]
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[Fiction] A student juggles the present and the future: The future is messy. Scott’s senses feed him all possible futures at once. He’s learned to wander only a few seconds ahead. That’s close, but it’s still not normal. This man, though, is a relief to his senses. He makes everything clean. Scott wonders for how […]
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[Fiction] A woman on an Arctic cruise encounters her past: At the outset Verna had not intended to kill anyone. What she had in mind was a vacation, pure and simple. Take a breather, do some inner accounting, shed worn skin. The Arctic suits her: there’s something inherently calming in the vast cool sweeps of […]
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[Fiction] A favor from an ex, with a catch: DENNIS Let me guess. Is this about money? Now that I have it? Or do you suddenly need me on some emotional level heretofore unrealized? Pause. JOSH Yes. I need money. Silence. “Turnabout.” — Daniel Reitz, Guernica See more #fiction #longreads
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[Fiction, not single-page] A father, his sons, and what he teaches them: When we got home from school Paps was in the kitchen, cooking and listening to music and feeling fine. He whiffed the steam coming off a pot, then clapped his hands together and rubbed them briskly. His eyes were wet and sparkled with […]
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[Fiction] Life behind the cash register, and other possibilities: A proper mental Saturday it is, what with New Sue off with her hernia and the Lukes of Hazzard gone AWOL, so Muggins Here’ll have to cover for everyone else’s break. Not New Sue and Beverly are still giving me the silent treatment ‘cause I can’t […]