Emma and Dixon

by Liz Mayers

When our old pear tree blew down, the children stopped playing in the yard after school. They’d throw pears against our fence, thump each other with ‘em, and leave the cores behind. When I’d shoo the rascals away, they never listened. I only shooed ‘em ‘cause I thought they bugged Dixon. But I learned he counted on the ruckus to wake him from his afternoon nap. He misses the fooling around. And so do I. We wanna attract ‘em again, like the bees and the butterflies. But growing another pear tree takes too long and we don’t have much time.

The Artifice of Perfection

by Chris Cochran

An educational consultant with impeccable skin lectures our department via videoconference. Your students, she says, are already using artificial intelligence to cheat. This is a threat to your school’s academic integrity.

She shows us a website that can calculate the probability that a student plagiarized using chatbot text. Software created to fix a problem that software created.

I’m transfixed by her countenance—slim jawline, large blue eyes, unnaturally full lips. Her complexion is flawless, impossibly, and that’s what gives it away: She’s using a filter, presenting someone else’s version of beauty as her own.

Note to Self

by Jamy Bond

When your mother is dying, go to her bedside and take her hand. Do what you can to ease her suffering. What you’ll remember years from now, watching a sun-washed sky at dusk, your husband gone and your children grown, won’t be her neglect or rage or blame. It won’t be her attempts to sabotage your escape. It will be a moment when you were 17, standing at the front door, suitcase packed, car idling in the driveway, and she looked at you with eyes that said, I’m afraid of losing the things I love; I’m afraid of being alone.

Waiting Room

by Melissa Ren

I stared at the wall clock. The second hand moved at a snail’s pace, defying the concept of time. The people in my periphery stared at the same clock. Waiting had this room beat.
With the office embedded deep underground, Wi-Fi didn’t reach the likes of us. I came unprepared. No book, no music, not even water. I thought I’d be in and out.
I hadn’t consumed liquids in over three hours, and yet, I’d been holding in my piss the entire time.

“Number 93!”

I jumped from my seat and handed in my papers.

“You’re in the wrong room.”

Three Universes Created

by JS O’Keefe

Driving home after dove hunting I almost ran over a rabbit.

”No doves,” I told my wife, “but I saw a bear cub on 228.”

“Good thing you were in your car. Mother bears are never far.”

Later my neighbor dropped by, “Heard you had a rendezvous with a black bear yesterday. How big was he?”

“About five hundred pounds. I am out in the woods and suddenly this monster bear turns up from nowhere, stares at me for a few seconds and slowly walks away.

“Good thing, because he could’ve dispatched you with a single swat.”

Good thing, indeed.