What will we do about all these rats? we say, because everyone is saying it and there are t-shirts: “What will we do about all these rats?” printed in glow-in-the-dark ink across the breast. There are t-shirts but no answers. Then Romeo visits our village dragging one thousand hissing burlap sacks. Romeo instructs us to…

The Gill-man receives a letter from a retired ichthyologist. Only recently did she learn of what happened so many years ago on her colleagues’ expedition to the black lagoon at the upper reaches of the Amazon: the misunderstandings, the maulings, the gunfire. She is so sorry. She would like to apologize on behalf of her…

After the rain, there’s a sea of red. Red clay is notorious. It clings. Dyes hands and shoes and faces and hair. During the long, dry days, if the hot winds kick up, everyone walks away red. It’s a nuisance to dig into, chokes out more plants than it nurtures. Farmers have to ship in…

I was weird in all the wrong ways. Sometimes I’d find myself crying about it, clenching my fists and raging my tears at God. But it would pass mostly, and the feelings of hatred I had for myself would settle back down to the bottom of my being, and I could go about my normal…

All of the family stands silent around him. The mother and father have their hands up. The daughter, with her bare teenage belly and giant belt buckle, can’t believe this is what a human life can come to. The baby, in his giant diaper and coveralls, plays with three serving spoons on the floor, though…

There’s a hotel in outer space. Only the rich can afford to stay there. The satellite-hotel has a room where you can see through the glass floor and ceiling, submerge yourself in dust and planetoids like sprinkles suspended in jelly. We read about the room in an old, stolen issue of Discover Magazine. Viv doesn’t…

I met Verrant for a drink at Cy’s Roost, a small college dive bar on Welch Ave, a street known for the bars and tattoo parlors lining its sides which occasionally graced the airwaves featuring drunken student riots. The conflict in Iraq had been over for us for nearly two years, but the memories were…

The hour was three, the rest had gone to bed, a tennis match aired, and Nelle had something to say to her mother. Save the popping sound of the ball off the women’s racquets, the house was quiet. The sound, like an unplugged suction cup: puck, then puck, then puck. The rhythm calmed her. Tomorrow:…

I was going through a difficult time, so I bought a plant and named it after myself. I heard somewhere that every time you water the plant, you’re affirming good care for yourself. When I got home, I put the plant in my kitchen where there was plenty of sunlight. A friend came to visit…

Claire Larsen had spent the better part of ten years trying to leave the farm she’d grown up on. The first time, after her father died, she had simply walked toward the road. For two days. It never got any closer. When she’d given up, hungry, disoriented and still crying, the walk back to her…

Baby knows she’s beautiful. Why else would thousands gather to gawk at her through the glass, day after day after dome-shaped day? After all, nobody flocks to see ugly things. Baby’s the name they gave her, since she’s the youngest orca in the tank. Despite this distinction, she’s three times longer and ten times stronger…

We can see the Antarctic coast through the upper windows of Inverse Tower Six. Were the water remotely temperate, we could swim the distance to die comfortably of starvation in Marie Byrd Land. The name sounds deceptively joyful. Merry Bird Land. The woman who bore the name Marie Byrd was the wife of an explorer…