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The Interminable Yes by Connie Corzilius
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There are questions it does no good to ponder. It's not my nature and it's a waste of time. For example, I have long since stopped asking myself whether she drank as an excuse to fuck me or fucked me as an excuse to drink. Maybe a couple times a year now I'll think about it, turn it over once or twice like a smooth stone. But there is no answer that can announce itself as such. I'm much more comfortable shoving that stone back in my pocket, the one constant in the jangle and flux of loose change . . .
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Man of War by Stephanie Dickinson
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"Pretend I kidnapped you. That's what men back east did. They scratched G.T.T. on their doors, and threw their womenfolk in the wagon. Gone to Texas," the headshot photographer Brill laughed glancing at his leggy passenger. Taila—whose plum skin lips looked delicious—smiled without showing teeth. He liked the girl's hint of difference although he assumed her name was as fake as his own . . .
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Ghosts with Broken Hearts
by Philip David Alexander
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Trent told me he'd been following his thumb for while. He didn't seem too keen on giving details. There'd been some work on a farm, a job mopping up at one of those quick-lube places. And yes, the story about joining the military and getting jailed and then booted out was true. Trent was interested in hearing how my folks were doing. I didn't candy-coat it, my mom was twenty pounds lighter and had started smoking again, my father was quiet these days. He'd traded in all of his cds at a used record shop. He seldom played the stereo anymore. It sat in a coating of dust. The reel-to-reel was long gone . . .
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Green Pants and Lavender Golf Carts
by Jacqueline Powers
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Tom sat down on the bank and took off the white rubber shoes Grace had laughed at. Old man shoes. He dipped his feet into the water, knowing it was foolish, knowing he was tempting fate, and gators, and water moccasins and cotton mouths and every other damn predator in central Florida, including doctors. But then, he didn't give a damn . . .
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Eye for an Eye by J. Rubino
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Kathy had written him a single letter in their two years together. It was buried beneath a pile of old school papers, pictures and other letters in a cardboard box sitting on the top shelf of his closet. That meant that Maggie had searched through all his boxes and suitcases? Yet, she is suddenly reading an exact passage: I want to taste you Kathy wrote and Maggie now repeats. Then there is a mixture of words and noises that he can't understand . . .
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Old Lee's Wallet by Lulu Li
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In the bathroom Old Lee contemplated. He obviously had acted silly and might have confused, if not frightened, the woman quite a bit, but there were facts he had to find out before he could make the move. He had to make sure that Gao Mah would not marry him for his bank account . . .
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Penny by Aryan Kaganof
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"We lived in Brixton. This oke was shooting pinks at Damelin. They were taking steroids and smoking buttons. Burry already had a glass eye at 21. He blew someone away at a robot. When they tried to break in to my porzie I called him on the cell. He happened to be up the road on a coke binge with five army generals . . .
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Notes on contributors
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