by Eric Karpas

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The spider struggled silently to construct its web between the rotting oak of the porch floor and the sagging cloth of the dusty hammock.

by Joy Henry

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“We’ve been vacationing at this beach since Grace was a tiny one, staying at this hotel,” Dad says, to my boyfriend John.

Fifteen years old—old enough to be pulled to the door by the cosmic tug of Friday nights, but too young and scared to be able to go out and do anything. Hong Kong is no city for boys who haven’t learned how to make bad decisions. If I wasn’t going out tonight—or any Friday in [...]

He knew I needed him to talk, so he wasn’t saying anything. I stared straight ahead at signs written in Dutch, with drawings of happy people washing hands for safety.
The doctor came in. He was tall and pale with rusty hair. I imagined him building a windmill with his bare hands, sawing the wood, standing [...]