Author's Note: I often wonder about how much better the world might be without certain plagues that afflict it. This story is about the eradication of the worst of them. The scientist that took the podium looked, at first glance, more like a center linebacker for the Samoan National Football Team than a man … Continue reading The Termination
Category: Fiction
Sally Rook Writes a Book
Author's Note: Are there any illustrators out there? Because all this one needs to become an elementary school classroom staple is a good illustrator to bring it to life. If you're out there, hit me up. Hi, my name’s Sally Rook. I’m six years old. Every night when I go to bed, my Daddy … Continue reading Sally Rook Writes a Book
A Christmas Fable
Author's Note: This one I wrote in middle school. We must have been studying fables, and our assignment was to write a story that followed three rules: it had to be about animals, it had to be about the holidays, and it had to have a moral. I rankles me to this day that the … Continue reading A Christmas Fable
Charlie Dach
Author's Note: There has to be a better name for this story than the one above, but I'm almost as bad at naming stories as I am at naming characters. Needless to say, I'm open to suggestions. Charlie Dach stood atop a jagged, juvenile mountain at the base of the last tree within the … Continue reading Charlie Dach
Born Again
Author's note: This one is perhaps too subtle. As it is, I think import of the Creator's terrible work is probably too easily missed. But I think explaining it might diminish the impact for those who get it. Let me know what you think. The forest was ablaze with the green fire of spring. Everywhere … Continue reading Born Again
Small But Significant Things
Author's Note: I wrote this one in college. I'm not sure what turned my thoughts in this direction, but I think I did decent job capturing a small defiance in service of reclaimed dignity. As the young nurse twisted the doorknob and began to open the door, she turned back one last time. … Continue reading Small But Significant Things
The Hair-Catcher
Author's Note: This one is pretty much all true. The boy, the dad, and the hair-catcher are all real, and are rendered here exactly as I remember them. Except for the last few lines. I'm not a good enough son for that part to be true. The hair-catcher crossed his mind again. Halting his … Continue reading The Hair-Catcher
Pictures in the Sky
Author's Note: I recall feeling like there was some intrinsic connection between the names of the protagonist and his girlfriend in this one. I'm generally terrible at choosing character names, so I was happy to have found a pair that fit so well together, for whatever reason. It wasn't until years later that it dawned … Continue reading Pictures in the Sky
Popkin
Author's Note: After I realized in my early school grades that my fighting skills were woefully out of step with my temper, I learned to control myself. I got in only one real fight after that, in high school. My muddle-minded experience of the aftermath served as the seed of this story. Sam’s grandmother … Continue reading Popkin
It Began
Author's Note: It's interesting to imagine what the boundless curiosity and playfulness of a child would create, if only it could. Like all things living it began as a baby. It gurgled and squirmed and contemplated the darkness around it and imagined light. And then there was light. And its infantile imagination reeled at … Continue reading It Began
Heath Fogelman, author 