https://soundcloud.com/americanshortfiction/life-on-land-by-nina-maclaughlin Katya can hold her breath for over seven minutes. She’d practiced alongside us in the pool. Up to her chin, she kneeled in the shallow end and took a deep inhale and long slow exhale, so long it seemed impossible her lungs had gathered that much air, not balloons for birthday parties there below her ribcage, but hot air balloons, enough to attach a basket and float over hills. Her heart slowed, something went … [Read more...] about Life on Land
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Five Questions for the Snake Charmer
https://soundcloud.com/americanshortfiction/five-questions-for-the-snake-charmer-by-c-pam-zhang At some point on my way to the nephew’s birthday without a present, somewhere between swigging Gatorade and weaving around piss puddles and clamping my lips against vomit or provocative statements (as my dear sister puts it), I feel a hand grab mine. A shock of warmth, then the hard shove of a box. I watch enough news to know: I'm holding a bomb. In a few seconds the wet red jelly of … [Read more...] about Five Questions for the Snake Charmer
Flood
https://soundcloud.com/americanshortfiction/flood My sister couldn’t see till she was seven, after we’d moved across town for the fifth time because all our landlords “had it out for us,” as my parents said, and the new place was in a better neighborhood because my mom’s boss owned it and had cut us a deal on rent, so we were zoned at a better school that was more equipped to deal with my sister’s seizures than our old school had been—though since she’d switched to phenobarbital the year … [Read more...] about Flood
The Clown
The clown counted his murders as he drove the new couple to the house on Rocking Horse Lane. Not few. The Lexus needed air again, according to the little orange light, the man in his passenger seat was offering original commentary on the Clintons, and behind the clown’s left eye a toothache and an earache were collaborating. Not few at all, and some of the murders had been admirably painful, admirably patient. Outside the Lexus it was seventy-two degrees in October, and inside the Lexus, … [Read more...] about The Clown
Surface Treatments
It took less than a month for the coats of paint to completely cover the electrical outlet in the kitchen. So much for coffee. So much for toast. The nearest outlet was in the dining room. The longest extension cord was only six feet. We suggested that our parents buy a longer one, maybe one that wasn’t orange and meant for outdoors, maybe one that wasn’t caked with saffron dirt, but we were only children. Like most children, even the wisest things we said went ignored. This was when Dad … [Read more...] about Surface Treatments
Sign of the Times
Simon had first seen the sign while walking back from the Sunday farmer’s market in early November. It was printed on paper, affixed to a streetlamp, and stuck over an old gig poster. He hadn’t paid it much mind but, as he walked, he saw another copy, and then another still. He had an urge to stop and read one, but he was balancing several oversized aubergines and further investigation seemed an unreasonably cumbersome affair, so he continued home. That evening, as he sliced and fried his … [Read more...] about Sign of the Times