“I’m taking my mother and my sisters to the Opera and that new Persian restaurant downtown for Aunty Amelia’s birthday tomorrow.” My mother tells me at the dinner table. “Well, aren’t you going to invite the guest of honor?” “Honey.” A pause. “She died last year. You carried the casket. Remember?” “This’ll be your toughest … Continue reading
Category Archives: Fiction 2013
A Motley Spirit — Terry Heller
The Spring 2013 Fiction Issue is dedicated to: Dr. Terry Heller who is retiring from his position as a Professor of English at Coe College this year. Over the years,Terry Heller has made numerous contributions to The Coe Review both of terms of written works and support. The students of the college will miss him very … Continue reading
Hewn — Nick Bertelson
The Trans-Canada pipe-layers arrive to dig their trench. They will cut and pile the poplars on a tilled square of dirt where lazy heads of lettuce are purpling in the autumn sun. Their supervisor approaches my house, knocking on the front door. Sadie barks from her kennel outside as the trimmers chainsaw the poplars now … Continue reading
The Visit — Evan Morgan Williams
It was an arrangement the other seamstresses frowned upon: Elaine and her aunt, Paula, tenanting the loft above the tailor’s shop. Paula was not even discreet about it: she left their straw mats plainly laid out among the naked discarded mannequins, the bolts of rosy silk the local girls liked for their wedding gowns, the … Continue reading
Free Parking — Ariana Lily Uding
We fuck on the Vespa. Greg tugs my jeans around my ankles, and presses me against Mrs. Schmidt’s garage. The one with the pink handle. The aluminum is chilly against my neck and paint flakes fall in my hair, white specks like dandruff. His arms are train tracks, shaking as he holds me up, but … Continue reading
CB White in Ruth-Anne’s Escape — William “Kobe” Spencer
We’re close to Iowa, so close we’re in it. Ruth-Anne says she knows where we are and I say she doesn’t have to. I park the car outside the tobacconist’s (closed) and load a bowl of aromatic in my corncob. Ruth-Anne says she never smoked a pipe before but her dad does sometimes, in his … Continue reading
Deep Breath — Jennifer Boddicker
“I’d do it too, to keep from eating grubs,” said Cindy, late one afternoon. Cindy was my dad’s girlfriend, a dancer and cocktail waitress. Dad worked at the garage while Cindy and I watched reality TV, Survivor reruns. We laughed at the women who bared it all to win chocolate bars on tropical islands. Cindy … Continue reading
A Scrubland Companion — John Thornburg
I once caught a glimpse of the floating mansion from the roof of my apartment complex at 10th and Foley. I went up there every now and then to smoke cigarettes and photograph sunrises or sunsets. Only this particular time I didn’t have my camera and this time I saw the mansion. Hovering noiselessly over … Continue reading
A Girl for the Night — Steven Ostrowski
I was almost eighteen years old but that day, the day of the bachelor party, I was so nervous you’d have thought I was twelve and had never seen a girl take off her clothes before. I paced around the house, took a walk along the train tracks, even tried to read an old book … Continue reading
Have you ever gone to a carnival and got on a ride with a girl you didn’t know and it should’ve been sketchy but it wasn’t then the ride turned out to be ferocious and made you want to vomit a thousand dragons, but, ironically, your sister threw up when you got home? — Paulina Harrison
Well I have and it was awesome. Continue reading
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