On "Lucky" by Danila Botha (1906 words) ***

Botha's "Lucky" ventures into typical teen territory and moves beyond it in ways that are disturbing. What's working here is the voice, which focuses on a child who is at war with her parents, a child on the way to becoming an adult but who thinks she already is one. The parents insist that she go to church, that she refrain from drugs and drinking and sex and many other things inappropriate for a fifteen-year-old. When her parents ban her boyfriend, however, real trouble ensues. Perhaps the girl's maturity--or lack thereof--is showcased most in her emotions, or lack thereof. Read the story here at Trailer Park Quarterly.

On "Fast Trains" by Mary Miller (3884 words) ****

This story from Miller's Big World features a narrator who is pretending to be someone she isn't in order to keep a man. Or at least, that could be one take on the story. Perhaps, she's not really doing it for the man; maybe she's just doing it to get along in the world. This isn't an over-the-top funny story one often reads about pretenders. This is about the masks we all wear, the subtle ones, the ones we're not even certain are masks because they are worn so long that they might even be us. And in that is where this story's kind of desperate sadness resides. I'm reminded also of some of the fiction a friend of mine has been writing of late, where nothing much happens and yet where by the end, we get a sense that all the world has come to us in under five thousand words. Read the story here at Trailer Park Quarterly.