On "In The Middle Of Nowhere With Company" by Ruth Nestvold (4733 words) ***

Put a story on unfamiliar ground and add some strange metaphor made literal, and you have the makings of something quite unique. Nestvold's story here, about the birds of sorrow, chases those birds around the Alaskan frontier until they disappear. It's a story of grief and of recovery in a literalized form. Read it here at Abyss and Apex.