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the cloud cover. Don’t fret, Susan said, Doug was gone nearly a week the first time he went out. That hadn’t made Ellen feel any better, but she’d tried to sound sincere when she thanked Susan and wished her good night. That was five months ago by Ellen’s estimate, and there were still nights she spent alone, thinking about television and the sky and her childhood and all of the other things she once had but had no longer. Ellen sat down at the table and, checking the clock that hung on the wall one last time, started to transfer food from the serving dishes to her plate. The clock was an heirloom, given to Ellen by her mother when she sold the house after Ellen’s father passed. It was an old clock, the kind that chimes every hour, and used to stand in the kitchen of the house where Ellen grew up. Her mother had spent half her life pretending the clock didn’t exist while she knitted her fingers together in worry, waiting for her husband to return from the bowels of who-knows-where on nights when he hadn’t bothered to come home after work, or not work, at all. Ellen remembered watching her mother’s smile flicker as she said good night, both of them omitting certain questions and certain answers. Ellen would crawl into her bed and make quiet promises to herself, the kind that stick deep within the frontal lobe. All of them concerned men. These promises had died around the same time the old planet did. Ellen stared hard at her plate as she ate, churning her way through the rest of the could-call-it food she’d piled there. When she finished, she walked her dish to the sink and made up a plate for him, wrapping it in plastic and putting it in the refrigerator for time future. She thought about going into the living room to read, but it was nice sitting in the kitchen, to be able to cross and uncross her legs without the discomfort of the couch belt. She exhaled 38 Writing Tomorrow Magazine
contentedly, feeling cracks in her voice like the fissures that had ripped Earth apart. Visions of moving galaxies occupied her mind until she fell asleep. She woke to a noise and checked the clock to discover she’d slept for nearly two hours. Another noise floated down the hallway, coming from the rear bay. She heard the entrance hatch open and close, and then footsteps that echoed around the corner. She watched as he tiptoed by the kitchen, on his way to their bedroom. He stopped and looked in when he heard her laughing quietly. I figured you’d be asleep, he said, taking the seat across from her. I was, she said. Sorry I’m so late. That’s OK. How’d it go I’m on for two weeks, starting tomorrow. Pay isn’t bad, either. Good. They fell into silence. She thought about the plate in the refrigerator. You hungry He smiled, so she stood up and got the plate out. She placed it in the solar-powered microwave they both swore would have them sprouting extra limbs some day very soon, and waited until it beeped. He was peeling off his shoes when she set the plate down in front of him. She was quiet while he ate. After a few minutes, he started to slow down. Where’s the job, anyway The far side of BZ3150-NC615, northwest sector. Sounds beautiful. He laughed. It’s nice, actually, he said. I think you’d like it. Tell me about it. He told her about the way there and the way back and the there itself, of course. When he finished eating she stood up and February 2014 39
Page 1: Writing Shaping Tomorrow With Our P
Page 4 and 5: Contents Fiction 6 A Day of Rain/Ro
Page 6 and 7: Rolli A Day of Rain As it was a day
Page 8 and 9: I then returned to my Duties. As I
Page 10 and 11: “There was a boy. Another boy. Be
Page 12 and 13: Steven Volynets For Love, Eternal W
Page 14 and 15: pile. “Don’t hurtchaself now.
Page 16 and 17: up for a bump—maybe as much as tw
Page 18 and 19: mostly, crude pieces of wood and sc
Page 20 and 21: side. “Twice!” the Kid barks ba
Page 22 and 23: hair and face. “The friggin’ ba
Page 24 and 25: me, it aint happening. My uncle sai
Page 26 and 27: “What am I supposed to do, Skippe
Page 28 and 29: street— Chinatown, Harlem, Murray
Page 30 and 31: go back and forth in silence, like
Page 32 and 33: cellophane trash bag, pulled real t
Page 34 and 35: April Salzano Lightning can, does,
Page 36 and 37: Rob Andwood Set Phasers for One Ell
Page 40 and 41: carried his plate to the sink. By t
Page 42 and 43: with the lady who cut all our hair.
Page 44 and 45: Jennifer Racek The Dragon Keeper Li
Page 46 and 47: They spent the night in a standoff,
Page 48 and 49: The door belched cold air into the
Page 50 and 51: “A baby dragon! There’s going t
Page 52 and 53: It was a long time before Minchka f
Page 54 and 55: laboriously stretched out to him. A
Page 56 and 57: you made me last summer.” Aleksan
Page 58 and 59: flames at one another and huffing.
Page 60 and 61: Leila Fortier ~Punctuated~ Why Am I
Page 62 and 63: Leila Fortier ~Impossible Geometry~
Page 64 and 65: Devyani Borade Sky’s the Limit Th
Page 66 and 67: of her sari as she goes about her b
Page 68 and 69: “Shoe shine! Shoe shine! Get your
Page 70 and 71: “What, sir” “So what’s your
Page 72 and 73: himself some decent clothes. How lo
Page 74 and 75: • He watches the dancing water gr
Page 76 and 77: sacks on their shoulders. Of the la
Page 78: Still, when I remember you, it is w

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