https://soundcloud.com/americanshortfiction/tyler-stoddard-smith-knausgaard-in-space I aspire to dread, and so I embraced the opportunity to write about my struggle in outer space. As a boy in Oslo, I experienced the same dream people born in the Space Age had all over the world: the dream of having intercourse with Pat Benatar. I abandoned this dream when MTV stopped playing music videos and I never thought about space again, until my editor called. “I’ll see you in the next life,” I … [Read more...] about Knausgaard in Space
Flash Fiction
Save-A-Child
When the Boeing 727 takes off from Mitchell Airport, the bolts that hold the landing gear door in place are already unwinding. Eight miles away, Tucker Knoebel is making his way home early to the suburb of Oak Creek to be with his wife, Della. He loves entering the subdivision from the city when the streets turn from straight gray creases to lilting curves meant to mimic the flow of hills and rivers. Tucker sometimes feels like he is in his childhood train set among the metal models of the post … [Read more...] about Save-A-Child
Blind Oracle of Mactan
He is the blind oracle at Unchained Melody Massage Parlor. He specializes in foot rubs. He can stimulate all kinds of glands with pulls and pricks of the tendon and phalanges. He can, for example, make a person grow taller by pushing on the well of the big toe, which is the pituitary gland reflex point. Everyone knows this. He can also tell people’s fortunes. He made his first prophecy on April 26, 1521. He told Ferdinand Magellan, seated on a cane chair, feet bulbous from … [Read more...] about Blind Oracle of Mactan
You Haven’t Won Anything Yet
The officer shows me a photo of the missing child. “Is this you?” he says. “If it is,” I say, “do I win a prize?” He thinks it’s a joke and he narrows his eyes, but what he can’t see is I’m half-serious. The last time I opened my door for police, they went Gordon Ramsay on my couch cushions and earned me a cash settlement in the low four figures. This officer, with his acne scars, looks more like a Jehovah’s Witness. “Will you please take it?” He rattles the photocopy. I believe it’s … [Read more...] about You Haven’t Won Anything Yet
Fish Jokes
>°))))><< To start, Anna searches for his name. The search returns 5,881 emails—every single thing he sent her for the thirteen months they worked together. She filters out his work address but his personal Gmail still returns 1,739. Too many to comb through one by one. She can’t search by date; she doesn’t remember the date. If she’s going to find this email, she’s going to have to remember the words he used. She tries “sexy.” But she forgets to type “sexy AND” his name, so the … [Read more...] about Fish Jokes
Menu
We’ve already tried everything. We tell the waitress to bring rolls, wine. Meanwhile we’ll decide what we want to order. This is our favorite restaurant. It’s the only restaurant in town as far as we’re concerned. The atmosphere is exquisite—carpet with hunting scenes, dark wood. The mayor and his cronies sit nearby, tearing apart their steaks by candlelight and spilling juice on their ties. I wave. And there’s the guy Lynn always goes on about, the stiff cowboy type who can’t move his neck. The … [Read more...] about Menu