Issue Three

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A.A. GARRISON tell where the hymn originated, or the sex of its source. He periscoped his head from the seats, taking a cautious sweep of the cabin. It was total bedlam: baggage everywhere; people strewn about like their carryon; a forest of oxygen masks hanging like lynched men. The in-seat video screens played on, showing a laughing young girl. A balding man in an oxford shirt was attacking the next seat up, his face streaming crazy tears -- the beating noise Adrian had been hearing. Up the aisle, a heavy black woman in a sundress stood aloofly, arms hung at her sides, her candy-coloured lips in a crumpled figure-eight. She wailed in controlled bursts, somehow betraying the grotesque configuration of her mouth. She was one of the Screamers; challenger or incumbent, Adrian knew not which. It was profound, how fast the place had been trashed. The announcement had come, what, thirty seconds ago? "Good God," Adrian huffed, and then dropped back down. He had thought up more sins to confess, when he was once more interrupted, this time by an insistent vibration tearing through the length of the plane. It silenced everyone for one heartbeat moment, much like a concert crowd hearing the first played note. Then it passed and all hell resumed breaking loose. The Laugher, with Screamers One and Two, promptly returned to work, now joined by a Screamer <strong>Three</strong>, who sounded to be female and in first class. The Singer was a little slow on the uptake, but they eventually came around, jumping back in at ‘saved a wretch like me’. Adrian ducked deep in his seat, feeling to be in a pinball machine. He somehow found it to keep talking. "There was this boy I knew, when I was a kid," he said almost casually, to the blonde woman. "Johnny Strassup, his name was. Nicest kid, just --" Adrian hunched defensively as The Groper made another sudden pass, announced by the fwip of his jeans. With a morbidly cheeky expression, the man felt up women with remarkable dignity, as though he had every right to do so. He ignored the blonde, however, and Adrian picked up where he'd left off: "So, Johnny Strassup, nicest kid, just kind of a loser, I guess." He waved away sweat. "But, some kids were making fun of him once, and --" Adrian cut out again, now responding to a shock of activity in the aisle. Without prelude, the bald man who'd been beating the seat bolted up and tackled The Groper in one purposeful, electrified movement bespeaking rehearsal. Perhaps he'd become bored with the poor piece of furniture, perhaps
he wanted to dispense some vigilante justice as his last fleshly act. Regardless, he wrestled the man to the floor and struck out, knocking The Groper a good one in the jaw. The Groper appeared utterly surprised, going from insouciant to outraged, as if he hadn't been squeezing every breast in sight. Watching the melee, Adrian thought it some absurd action movie. But this wasn't a movie. Dear God, it wasn't. Now desperate to get it all out in time, Adrian twirled back to the shell-shocked woman and resumed his tale of hapless Johnny Strassup, now in fast-forward: "So, Johnny was a loser, and they were making fun of him and I saw it, and instead of doing anything, I joined them and made fun of him too and I've-felthorrible-about-it-ever-since-pleaseforgive-me-God -- !" The fuselage canted forward, forebodingly, and Adrian's bowels churned, which he compared to the first incline of a roller coaster. Baggage avalanched through the aisles. Frantic noises erupted in chorus. The oxygen masks listed lazily, like dangled tentacles. The blonde moaned from her chest, that of an unhappy cat. Grasping for comfort, Adrian took her hand and kneaded it brutally in his own, probably more painful than soothing. The woman only closed her eyes, squeezing out tears. As Adrian sat worrying the woman's hand, he caught a confused, flailing movement in his peripheral vision, what might've been a seizure in progress. He turned guardedly to his left, and there sat a Beast With Two Backs, its constituents a grimacing brunette stewardess and a heavyset blonde man with grapefruit-pink skin. The two coupled candidly from across the aisle, in some delinquent form of intercourse, both almost fully clothed, neither making the slightest attempt at pleasantries. The stewardess's trolley was overturned nearby, bleeding shrinkwrapped meals and tiny bottles of booze. ‘Won't be any phone call after that tryst’, Adrian had time to think, and he found himself biting back a laugh. It passed quickly. The Laugher, however, made up for Adrian's abstinence, as if on cue: "HEE- HEE-HAW! HA-ho-ho-HA-ha-ha ... HA- HA-HA ...!" Weeping. Interesting screams. A groan of commotion that could be anything. The Singer had at some point gone quiet, perhaps yielding to the other hysterical passengers, while the Screamers had now recruited the gist of the cabin. Adrian was doing his best to tune out the calamity, when the sinking feeling returned, grew. Time was short, he knew, in the way you know a red light is about to change, or that she isn't just CONFESSION
Page 1: Issue Three JUNE 2013 Volume 1, Iss
Page 5 and 6: JUNE 2013 CLEAN CLOTHES Short Story
Page 7 and 8: Lauren Hasty is a misplaced souther
Page 9 and 10: Charlie ran down the street, bare f
Page 11 and 12: She inhaled deep and then exhaled,
Page 13 and 14: called to her, she knew she wouldn
Page 15 and 16: PREDATOR by JUDITH DORE PREDATOR by
Page 17 and 18: Adam and I have been coming to this
Page 19 and 20: “Holy fuck,” he says. He falls
Page 21 and 22: Sound travels strangely underwater.
Page 23 and 24: UGLYLIGHTS by THE UGLYLIGHTS ICA BO
Page 25 and 26: magnifying glass with a lamp direct
Page 27 and 28: what they meant to her, and especia
Page 29 and 30: even if none of the other kids woul
Page 31 and 32: Nobody heard him, not even Cassie w
Page 33 and 34: pleas for mercy but breaking glass,
Page 35 and 36: When Janie came to her senses, she
Page 37 and 38: It was a choked, guttural voice, li
Page 39 and 40: more companions to join him in his
Page 41 and 42: Jackie squatted in the prison yard,
Page 43 and 44: A guard in the tower had taken aim.
Page 45 and 46: Jackie squatted in the prison yard,
Page 47: The Laugher was in the front of the
Page 51 and 52: ITH TWO L’s by COLIN JAMES
Page 53 and 54: TOR STREET by LAST HOUSE ON VECTOR
Page 55 and 56: “I have your word?” Richard wen
Page 57 and 58: PEEPING TOM’S TOM’s N
Page 59 and 60: PEEPING TOM’s MASTERPIECE by NATE
Page 61 and 62: PICK UP LINE by DAN LEE PICK UP LIN
Page 63 and 64: After a few minutes of listening to
Page 65 and 66: DEN GROW? by HOW DOES ONE’s GARDE
Page 67 and 68: As that vast maw yawned there befor
Page 69 and 70: Night had barely fallen when two hi
Page 71 and 72: man began to escort Kevin down the
Page 73 and 74: “Caitlyn. What about yours?”
Page 75 and 76: “Werewolves?” Just hearing the
Page 77 and 78: SHA ANNIE ANNIEN
Page 79 and 80: SHADES OF BLUE by ANNIE NEUGEBAUER
Page 81 and 82: EYER’s RING by CASSIE MEYER’s R
Page 83 and 84: out and rubbed the dirt and dry mud
Page 85 and 86: money before speaking, “How’s i
Page 87 and 88: eflection in the mirror. Terry’s
Page 89 and 90: simple chain, an identical ring sit
Page 91 and 92: The price of admission to their clu
Page 93 and 94: knocked on his door, Boy snuck up b
Page 95 and 96: Boy placed the rabbit in the center
Page 97 and 98: to let go but Boy easily backhanded
Page 99:
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Issue Three

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