Light Just Right – Sean Vranizan
(from Volume I: Truth and Fiction)
Prehistoric Playground – Toby Silverman
(from Volume I: Truth and Fiction)
Paula (from Volume I: Truth and Fiction)
By Aaron Kingon
Paula, the little girl of the house, woke up this morning with a bloody nose. Paula, the same Paula who draws little butterflies around everything and in her pictures makes the legs of dogs look like bulbous tumors, and draws the windows of every house crookedly. She had blood all over her face, like a little vampire. I tried to help her clean herself but she wanted to do it alone. Later, I watched as Paula played with Mic’s genitals, the dusty little rat terrier that lives in the yard. And I was repulsed and wanted to put a stop to it. But of course I didn’t. Who am I to say what’s wrong and what’s right? Besides, the whole time I was smoking, and under the late afternoon sun I felt very old and very useless.
Jason Caroll (from Volume I: Truth and Fiction)
By Katie Wheeler-Dubin
My mom had just died. I was twenty-one. My hair: newly brown. I was back at school in Santa Cruz after a quarter off. I was trying really hard to be strong. I hadn’t had good sex in four months.