To honor brave and loving women everywhere who, through their love and nurturing of children — their own or others — have earned the privilege of calling themselves mothers, we present our special Mother’s Day issue. Ambrose Bierce, one of our favorite Classic Flash Authors, once gave this definition: “Sweater, n.: garment worn by child […]
Think you’re tough? The kind of hyperspace hero who calls a meteor storm “confetti?” I dare you to say “no” to my mother. Tell her something just can’t work that way, and she’ll start to wonder why not. She’s good at untangling things — my girls will swear to that. And then — eventually maternal […]
The night the sea came in at the windows with a roar like a thousand drumbeats, I was abed and dreaming of my dead husband. Riauk had been gone nigh on two years, pitched over the side of our fishing boat, where he’d disappeared (I was told) with scarcely a splash. Punishment, the villagers said. […]
Lizzie was sitting in a corner counting her money. “Thirty-five, Kitty, thirty-five cents.” When Lizzie’s mother was away, washing, she made her kitten her confidant. “Talk about mamma’ll be surprised when she gets this birthday present, My-i! Third one I’m giving her — when I was five I gave her peanut candy; only she didn’t […]