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Blood and Dirt, Kate Folk
“Pop, pop, go the guns of the fake Confederacy. I step out of the tent, locate my plastic bag of toiletries, and set off for my morning bathroom visit. I ignore the townspeople who have encircled me. When I move, they follow, whining and clutching at the edges of my clothes.”
Prophet, Nell Payton
“Here is Jesus. Danny has stopped the car in the middle of the road. Look, there, Danny points out Lyndon’s window. And there he is, right before us in the center of a wilting lawn, stout in stone robes, the creases engraved.”
The Hermitage, Kelsie Hahn
“This crab is angry, scuttling around in his shell painted like a soccer ball. Rage infuses his posture, the angles of his one big claw and one little claw, the violent jags he tracks in the sand. This castle is not temperature-controlled.”
Hitchin’, Terry Rietta
“A .38 special sat nestled next to fast food napkins, inkless pens and a ratty owner’s manual for a 1974 Dodge Dart. Lyla recoiled. She tried to close the glove compartment, but it kept falling back open.”
The Laws, Zachary Leven
“Professor Rubenstein was the first to notice the universe was changing. A subtle observation through the circular screen of his electron microscope. The generally meticulous isotope particles had switched from square-dancing to slam-dancing.”
The Big One, Grant Farley
“‘My dad left us at Disneyland when I was ten,’ she said. ‘He had been staring out this window into Tomorrowland and he turned to my mom and said: “If we can’t be happy at the happiest place on earth, we can’t be happy anywhere.” Then he was gone. The nuclear family—Ka-boom.'”