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An Excerpt from “A Fading” by Aspen Audley

NEW FICTION!

It was the first day. I was new to the school, knew no one, and hoped that, with this fresh start, I could shed my usual shy personality and make real friends. 

The girl on my right had hair as short as a boy’s. She was petite in stature, small-boned, with rosy cheeks, glossy lips, and heavily-lashed, ice blue eyes.

She noticed me looking at her. “Hey, are you new?”

We weren’t supposed to be talking, and I’d never broken a classroom rule, but I decided to answer her.

“Yes.”

She smiled. “I was new last year. Do you have Recess A or B?”

I told her I had A. 

“Me too,” she said. “My name’s Megan.” 

A bubble of happiness rose in my chest. “I’m Camila.”

She leaned forward as though she were going to say something else, but Mrs. Donavan interjected.

“Megan and Camila, no talking. That’s one mark for each of you. Remember: three marks, and you must stay inside at recess.” 

Her voice hurled out like a cannonball, and I slid down into my chair, trying to avoid my classmates’ stares. I gazed at the floor, letting my vision go blurry for a moment. When I refocused, I saw a tiny ant scampering about under my desk. It meandered in circles a few times then darted off into space, out of view. I grew jealous. Ants can run away whenever they want. Sure would be nice.

COMING SOON to New Pop Lit!

An Excerpt from “A Portrait of a Lady in Gold” by Elizabeth Ohga

NEW FICTION

Penny knows she should tell her husband. She wants to tell him. Maybe if she tells him, he’ll say, “That doesn’t sound terrible, and who cares? I love you and the kids love you and we know you’re a great mom and that’s all that matters.”

What he actually says is a couple minutes of nothing, which Penny feels compelled to fill in with an apology. Then he says, “Listen, Penny, I know it’s been hard for you lately. Why don’t you try to find a babysitter to help you out, maybe you can go to the spa or something and treat yourself?”

Penny loved her husband. Really, she did. You can love someone, know they are your soulmate, and still hate them every once in a while. Love was a choice, and Penny and Gabe chose to love each other every time the choice presented itself. The thing Penny was trying to figure out was at what point did the choice present itself too often? At what point did the moments of searing contempt arise with a frequency as to inform her, this is probably not the right choice. She is sick of explaining parenting to him. She is sick of explaining being poor to him. She is sick of explaining that they are pretend rich people, which is the same thing as being poor.

COMING SOON to New Pop Lit!

An Excerpt from “Molasses” by Bud Sturguess

Of course I laughed at the memes. Just about all of us did. There’s no shame in admitting you had a good chuckle when you saw a meme lampooning the Titan submersible disaster. Especially the ones that were Spongebob themed; those were the best.

I suppose we felt it was okay to laugh because the guys on the submarine were so filthy rich. It was kind of telling, the mood of the average citizens, that we were so disdainful of the wealthy that we didn’t hide our giddiness when they embarked on such a typical “rich guy thing” and imploded. I guess it’s part of that “eat the rich” mentality we’ve harbored so long. We even told ourselves it was okay to laugh despite the fact that among the five dead was a 19-year-old kid, the son of one of the rich guys, who hadn’t done anything harmful to anybody with his wealth (that is, his parents’ wealth). Then again, I don’t know that his parents did anything wrong by anybody with their wealth either. But, just being rich was sinful enough for us.

Coming Soon to NEW POP LIT!