Posts from the ‘Fiction’ Category

Oct 13

Permanent

by Brooke King

Camp Liberty, Baghdad, Iraq
October 2006

Across the aisle from my hooch, Private Ricky Sullivan sat on his stoop in full battle rattle clinging tightly to a set of dogtags that weren’t his. Rubbing them back and forth between his fingers, he gently wiped the blood from the name that lay stamped into its silver face. He lowered his head, the dogtags firmly in his palm. He pressed his closed hands to his forehead, the metal chain of the dogtags dangling down, almost touching the grated step. I didn’t say anything to him, not because I didn’t care or because I couldn’t find anything to say. I said nothing because nothing would’ve comforted him in the fact that he was holding the dogtags of a dead soldier, his friend. Read more

Oct 11

Kicking Against the Pricks

by David Buchanan

Two women were in the front of the line chatting up a Navy Admiral. The first one was tiny—about five feet tall—dipping and twisting as she fixed her hair and checked her dress in a mirror on the far wall. The dress was fitted and yellow, with sequins and a small purse to match. She wasn’t attractive, but the Admiral looked down the freckled cleavage of her fallen breasts and they exchanged kisses—left, right, left. She threw her red hair back, laughing to something he whispered in her ear. I could see the crowns on her back molars.

Oct 8

Sweetness

by Donald Miller

Mac shouldn’t have been shot. His good shoulder is now ripped to shit. The bandage I wrapped on is holding but soaked with blood. It’s bad.

Sep 23

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Joe

by George Cramer

Forty years ago Agent Orange covered Pete head to foot. Not yet known as killers, his platoon cursed the mess left by the defoliate. Later he laughed at their ghost-like photo images. Now sixty-eight, he mused, I’m just another casualty of the Vietnam War. The doctors gave him six weeks. Read more

Sep 9

A Night in the Delta

by George Thorne

The jeep idles along in second gear, tires soundless in the sandy rutted track. Momentum slows as the driver silently eases the clutch pedal to the steel floorboard, gliding the jeep to a coasting halt beside a chest high pile of sandbags. Before the jeep has completely stopped Carl swings both legs over the side and eases to the ground. Reaching into the cargo space behind the seat, he grabs his helmet and flak jacket. He is barely able to get his gear squared away, when like a ghost, the jeep slides away silently in first gear, the little four cylinder engine barely noticeable in the fading twilight of the paddy fields and jungle of the Mekong Delta.

Sep 4

A Visit to Dachau

by Margi Desmond

It is impossible to emotionally prepare for a trip to the site of the Dachau Concentration Camp—the first Bavarian state camp that served as a model for the vast concentration camp system under Schutzstaffel (SS) management during World War II. Living on Kreiger Kaserne, a United States military base a mere two-hour drive away and determined to pay her respects to all those who perished, Army wife, Amanda Lahane, felt it her duty to visit the site, regardless of her own feelings of trepidation. With her husband, Marc, deployed to Afghanistan, now was a good time to take the tour, so if the visit upset her, he wouldn’t worry about her. Mark was protective of Amanda and never liked to see her sad. Going on the guided tour with her new friend and neighbor, Rachel, was an ideal way to visit the site—both convenient and economical—given the atrocious gas prices in Europe.

Aug 26

Brace for Impact

by Brian Kerg

A thrumming rattle cracked the night’s solace. Alan sat bolt upright. The pounding of his heart echoed at his temples. Each pulse ached like the aftershocks of a steady quake of punches to his head. His first sharp intake of breath was that of a drowning swimmer breaking the surface of a frigid lake.

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Aug 18

Three Days in April

by Nancy Dolan

For the first time in four long years I relished the arrival of each new day. Before sunrise I made it my habit to spring from bed and set my hands to chores. With the homestead cared for I planted myself in a cane-bottomed rocker on the front porch. There for hours on end, I trained my eyes ever stead forward toward the rickety, half fallen gate at the end of the long travel-worn drive.

Aug 11

Forward the Heroes

by Tony Brown

The destroyer NATHAN J. PIPKIN is rockin’ and rollin’ as a typhoon bears down upon us from across the western Pacific. Captain Johnson relays the order from Major Paulson to Lieutenant Hudson, who in turn barks it out to the top sergeant.

Aug 8

All Sewn Up

by Tom Probert

1. Somewhere in Yorkshire.

“Always carry a housewife; you never know when it will come in handy”.