The Smothering Mother

by Angela Carlton

She calls 1-2-3-4-5-6 times daily. Your mother’s impatient, demanding, living among the elderly. There’s problems Monday, Thursday, days in between. The phone keeps ringing-ringing-ringing. The piercing sound is like blasting sirens in your ears before a wheezing cough develops deep inside your lungs. And you can’t breathe...you can’t breathe-breathe under the smothering mother.

6S

Angela Carlton's fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, Pedestal Magazine, 6S, 50-Word Stories, Spillwords Press and Friday Flash Fiction. In 2022, “A Jigsaw Life,” a collection of stories was released. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more on Facebook.

Time of Death

by Chris Talbott

Time of death is 3:32 a.m. There is no one there to witness. They’ll make up a time later. Who cares? Who cared? Certainly not them.

6S

Chris Talbott is a late-career journalist and media relations representative. This is his first fiction publication.

Not A Word

by Madeline Monroe

Contrary to what they may think, I want her to have everything she’s ever wanted. I want her to have that house on Miller Avenue, with the white shutters and the blue door. I want her to get a dog, or a cat if she becomes that kind of person. I want her to get the promotion, and if she doesn’t I want her to quit and find a better job. I want her to sit down at Thanksgiving, and when she’s asked what she’s grateful for, I want her to have no idea where to even start. I want her to have it all, and I want to never hear a word about it.

6S

Madeline Monroe is currently earning a BFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College. She splits her time between South Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, and Boston.