22penguin Fiction
By Richard A. Huston
Vesna Vulovic
Jan. 26, 1972: Twenty-two year-old Vesna Vulovic was a flight attendant on Yugoslav Airlines DC-9 en route from Stockholm to Belgrade. A bomb, planted by Croatian terrorists, exploded onboard when the aircraft was at 33,330 feet. Vulovic was in the tail section that fell to Earth. It landed at just the right angle on a slope of snow-covered mountains.
William and the Bees
William and I watched the bees as they moved in hive and out. Their motion was layered in compounding visuals that my open mind made little order of.
Lest We Forget the Night...
A setting sun under a cloudless, pristine blue sky, the temperature quite warm, lights the falling night, this twilight, yet. Unique is the sky, rendering everything in a hue of another world, bright, eerie, mysterious, vaguely foreboding...
Wait Till Tildy Comes
On Michigan’s west beaches—the wind wails most every day. Washed in the coming air, one feels life as oxygen blows in from the lake. In brewing storms...
Hello, July
More than one of us had begun to wonder what was wrong with July, jumping at the initial ring, reaching for the phone with both hands. Frantically she would pant, double clasped hands on the receiver, as the words seeped into her ear...
The Return Letter
Gray sky, towers and concrete, the inclement weather of spring cloaked the people in umbrella currents and raincoat disguises...
Revenant
“Get up, breakfast is ready,” my mother’s voice echoed through the hallway, through the frame of my door, through the layers of blankets and through the stories of my sleep...
Red Balloon
On one of those placid afternoons, the kind of day when you forget the coming thunderstorms, where the blossom smell is still in the air, on the blue planet earth, tiny winged shadows whisked...
Fireflies
Somewhere in the manic time they moved. Around me without pretense—they flashed and flew. Random they appeared and random, they were gone. Without electricity, they glowed, without gasoline they flew...
A Perfect Meadow
In a perfect meadow, somewhere under an alpine sky, I tag my acquaintance with terms such as ‘lovely,’ ‘dreamy,’ and ‘gorgeous.’ This seems like the thing to do, being a perfect meadow and all.
Hopeless Fusion
I had taken an account of any possibilities my path might bring. The gentle parallels of the rails seemed to provide a direction without any pretense...
Lonely Soul’s Club
“Drink had long ago quenched my Dickensian appetite for human character.” I rather found my thought charming and admired the bar around me...
Earthly Boy and Heavenly Bound
I tucked one leg under the other and sat precariously on the edge of the roof...
Potter McFarlen
The initial crack rang through the ceiling of apartment 2B, followed by the scuttle of steel on the wood floor above. The shot echoed several times as the plaster floated down like dirty city snow...
Quiet Musicians
It was the first day of Music Theory 201. Excited, I arrived early to check out the practice rooms. I walked down the corridor looking into the empty rooms with their silent pianos. Startled by a long note...
The Scene of the Crime
"Have you committed a crime today?"
Nerve Blocks
The possibility of creating art by the brief application of a local anesthetic is nothing new...
An Instance of Humming
I was ready to drive into her right there on the steps, squeezing her against the wet...
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