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The Octopus: A Fable

In Issue 6, October 2017, Issues Archive by Tushar Jain

Pariya’s son narrates the times his father turns into an octopus when he feels romantic love. Later, Pariya marries Ammya and things seem normal—except they aren’t. Years later the son learns the truth through a suppressed dream.

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The Shoelace

In Issue 6, October 2017, Issues Archive by Stephen Baily

On the father’s eightieth birthday, he tells his oldest son he wants to celebrate it in a funeral parlor. There are the usual expatiations and songs and food and drink, but alone in the chapel, the father reveals to the son how his mother really died.

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White Dust

In Issue 6, October 2017, Issues Archive by Grant Price

In an inflatable mess tent for refugees, an attendant learns the story of the bearded man who travels from Greece to Macedonia by foot, then to Serbia and eventually to Budapest seeking asylum. Danger arrives and so does white dust.

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Family Ties

In Issue 6, October 2017, Issues Archive by Maria Savva

A sixty-five-year-old man holds hostage three children and a twenty-something woman. They have strength in numbers but he threatens and lies. They are now the family he never had. He is husband to the oldest, Dad to the children. His family ties.

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Newberry

In Issue 5, September 2017, Issues Archive by Chaya Bhuvaneswar

On the staid street in Boston, Vinita manages a manicure business for her cool boss Leo while he’s on a short vacation. But Vinita makes plans, and they have nothing to do with staying where she is.

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Junk Mail

In Issue 5, September 2017, Issues Archive by Aaron Heil

Aaron J. Heil’s story steps ever so sensitively into the marriage of Justin and Renee, which is complicated by a family wedding, a misunderstanding, and a junk mail offer for on-demand weather.

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The Foundering

In Issue 5, September 2017, Issues Archive by Tim Rico

In the Gothic horror tradition of Edgar Allan Poe and E.T.A. Hoffman, Tim Rico brings us a gripping tale of a purloined galleon, a grotesque prisoner, and a shipwreck in “The Foundering.” The ending satisfies horror expectations.

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Half As Good

In Issue 5, September 2017, Issues Archive by Stela Dujakovic

Stela Dujakovic meets men and draws them as characters in fictional realms, sometimes several into one in “Half As Good.” The story explores the tension between reality and imagination.

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In The Past

In Issue 5, September 2017, Issues Archive by Maria Savva

“In The Past,” Maria Savva takes us into in the lives of Roger Bainsford and Paul Squires who have “issues” from the past. One wants a job; the other gives it. It is a synchronous moment in the lives of both.