1.
Once upon a time, the Little Mermaid came into Red Lobster. She came into Red Lobster sad and wobbly. Sad, because she missed her family and friends far away under the sea. Wobbly, because she was now an ex-Mermaid, and had still not quite gotten the hang of legs.
The Little Mermaid came into Red Lobster every Thursday. She never ordered anything, never requested a table. She just loitered in the lobby, by the aquariums, and sang to the lobsters. She had a good singing voice, but, still, customers complained. We told her she could sing to the lobsters all she wanted if she bought something—a Caesar salad, crab cakes, mozzarella cheese sticks, a cup of clam chowder—but she never did. I think she had money troubles. The market price of lobster was then around twenty-seven dollars a pound.
Our manager, Farnsworth, instituted a strict zero tolerance policy toward the Mermaid. He warned new hires about her during induction training, posted “For the Enjoyment of Customers Only” signs on the lobster tanks, stapled a poorly taken photo of the Mermaid to a corkboard in the staff room. But, if he wasn’t around, and no customers complained, we left the Mermaid alone, let her sing to the lobsters for as long as she wanted. I think she wrote the songs herself. They were extremely sad, and many of them seemed like they were meant to be duets, presumably with the lobsters, but when it came time for the lobsters to sing all we heard was silence. This made her sad songs even sadder.
An excerpt from Lavinia Ludlow’s new novel alt.punk
FICTION BY LELAND CHEUK: “A man named Man wakes angry, very angry, and he’s not certain why. There are many reasons these days. Just open your Twitter feed. That’s what Man does. China raises interest rates. Bon Jovi tops Billboard. Man takes hostages with sword. All of this irritates Man.”
FICTION BY MICHELLE ONG: “…they quickly halted production when treasure hunters began searching for the philosopher’s stone and alchemy rose in popularity”
FICTION BY LELAND CHEUK: “If Dave switches from an extra large coffee to a small one daily, he’ll save roughly $365 this year, as this year is not a leap year. With $365 dollars, he can almost buy the new Android OS touchscreen phone he wants.”
FICTION BY CHLOE ZOLA: “He wakes up. Slowly. Like an elderly robot with a defective switchboard…”
FICTION BY LELAND CHEUK: “The president coughed, a hacking, desperate, stabbing sound. The car slowed, and the president blinked away tears and tried to breathe until the scouring noises from his chest ceased. The driver asked if he should return to the hospital.”
FICTION BY MATT GAJEWSKI: The final installment of the serialized story
FICTION BY MATT GAJEWSKI: “In addition to the fake celebrities, there was a real celebrity at the reunion. We had known him in high school as Dewayne Smith, but the world now knew him as Illa D-Murder.”
FICTION BY LELAND CHEUK: A story about love in the time of financial meltdowns
FICTION BY MATT GAJEWSKI: Part one of a new three-part series
A SHORT STORY BY MATT GAJEWSKI: “We live in a world composed of senselessness.”
FICTION BY GREG TURNER: “He can’t stand her sadness, the way her eyes look when she says it, the way it deflates her figure. Her shoulder slump, her elegant neck forward and plucked. Hates himself, then turns his hate on her.”
FICTION BY LELAND CHEUK: “In my class, Oscar is the ringleader. I imagine him growing to be a morally challenged authority figure: a crime organization don, a politician on the take, or an investment bank executive – hypercompetitive and lawless like the people I used to work for”
BY MATT GAJEWSKI: Part seven–the final installment of the Mt. Olympus, Miami series
FICTION BY KJ HANNAH GREENBERG: “Charlene exhaled noisily as she willed her flexors and extensors to move her hand toward her face. She imagined her biceps also aiding that effort.”
MT. OLYMPUS, MIAMI BY MATT GAJEWSKI: Part six in the summer serial
Paul M Davis