Jack squeezed his mother-in-law’s parrot with both hands. Its tiny heart beat like mad, and its wings strained against his fingers. "Set me free!" the parrot squawked. "Please?" Its beady black eyes pleaded with him. "Sorry, buddy," Jack said. "My wife would kill me if I lost her mom’s […]
flash fiction
Ignacio examined the fortifications, seeing strengths, flaws, and faint future ghosts with his gift. He smiled. He’d stop the French here. A dead dolphin drifted past, and Tom’s strength was fading. He was drowning. He wished that he’d never wished for an ocean of tequila. Tim’s margarita was a pretty […]
Twitter Stories
James–no, Jim, he had to start thinking of himself as Jim–couldn’t believe his luck. The only other kid on Mars was a cute girl. A cute, nice girl who was obviously excited about the idea of being his friend. No one had ever been excited to be his […]
Martian Adventures: Into the Greenhouse
The Earth still looked beautiful from the moon. Kari stood on the lunar surface and stared up at it. She started to run, accelerating in long bounding jumps. It wasn’t hard in the low gravity, even at her age. When she was going as fast and jumping as high as […]
Homesick
Sam’s alien boss laughed when he asked for his birthday off. It told him to stop tracking time by Earth’s sun and took his calendar away. The once-pauper was ready to return to his life, but a servant gave him a crown wrapped in rags. The note said "Happy Birthday, […]
Twitter Stories
Ronnie waited outside the new boy’s cryosleep pod, barely keeping herself from bouncing up and down. She wasn’t supposed to be here–Mom had told her to let the new settlers get settled before she started pestering them. But she couldn’t wait. She wanted to meet James P. Morgan. She traced […]
Martian Adventures: New Friends
Cynthia positioned the pink party hat between Harold’s furry ears and carefully placed the elastic band under his muzzle. "Don’t know why we’re bothering," he muttered. "It’s her birthday!" Cynthia said. Harold shrugged his massive shoulders and sat back on his haunches. "She’s just going to roll her eyes and […]
The Birthday Bear
Benthamidia uncurled her pale, four-petaled pink flowers and drank in the sunshine. It was a perfect spring day–the air was warm and sweet, and the stream beneath her cool and swollen with melted snow. A human scrambled up her trunk, scraping her bark with his fingernails. Benthamidia shuddered under […]
The Lonely Dogwood
Alison crawled between the boards over the abandoned house’s broken window and picked her way across the bare, dusty floor. The winter air was cold and still and smelled like rotting plaster, but Alison caught the faintest hint of lilacs. The kitchen door swung open at Alison’s touch and she […]
The Unicorn’s Gift
The captain locked her baby in the FTL for the jump. "Ma’am, human souls are the only thing strong enough to break the laws of physics." The robot dismantled his mistress for his freedom. But freedom was boring, so he rebuilt her. Soon, everyone would serve […]