20250223

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.

20250222

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.