THREE BODY PROBLEM1 “…My resolution is fixed. I shall be free.” …at that moment he was free, at least in spirit. The future gleamed brightly before him, and his fetters lay broken at his feet. – The Heroic Slave (1852) “As to the moral and social influences of pictures, it would hardly be extravagant to […]
By the time the final flurry had fallen, a towering twenty-three inches of snow blanketed the city of Providence in a vast sea of white. The winter of 2005 came a close second to the state’s largest blizzard. The only past occurrence even comparable was the blizzard of ‘78, when a record-breaking twenty-eight inches had […]
I worked for Flor all through my teenage years. She paid me well too, for the mundane errands, like delivering groceries, but also for the Santeria work that I had come to admire and respect; not for its sound reason or logic, but for its rejection of societal norms. The imagery and the lore behind […]
The following is a sequel to the author’s piece, Bruja, from the last issue. I first bonded with my mysterious neighbor, Flor, over our communal care for local stray cats. The decrepit garage we kept them in became a shared point of contact and a sacred space where we would cross paths at feeding times […]
“You see that train down there?” My brother Derek said. His face was pressed against the window. “It’s a trainyard. There are tons of trains down there.” I replied, refusing to look up from my book. I had a mountain of homework to do and did not have time for his nonsense. “No, no! It’s […]
I have always loved cats, ever since I was a boy. Something about their selective socialization, isolated grace, and potential for fierce loyalty has spoken to me in ways no other species has. Not that I was allowed to keep any when I was young. We were a working-class family living in a neighborhood that […]
It was just a kiss. That’s what he kept telling himself. Didn’t mean anything. Lips brushing against cheek, lightly dusting like a bee and pollen… There you go, getting all gushy and mushy and romanticizing about it. DIDN’T MEAN NOTHING. Yeah. Right. He’d spotted her at the party right away, mostly because he’d seen her […]
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know when or if anyone will read this. I suppose I’m leaving this as a record in the hope that someday – somewhere – someone will find it and learn from our mistakes. On July 4th, 2024, the legendary Necronomicon was unearthed in Damascus. For those who don’t know, the […]
Omar was a custodian. He worked in a prominent downtown highrise, overnights, from ten to six. With most of the office personnel working from home these days, his workload was light. He emptied a few trash cans, vacuumed the carpets, and sprayed down the glass surfaces. It was solitary work, slow and methodical. No supervision, […]
After three days of rain from oppressively low clouds, the sun came out. I decided to fly for the pure joy of it. The sky was a brilliant teal. I took off in my Cessna 150 from Quonset Airport and headed north by northwest. I flew towards Pascoag, Rhode Island. It was a short flight, […]