On "Waiting for the Americans" by Debra Di Blasi (5390 words) ***

After finishing graduate school, I returned to California and to my old university. Everyone seemed so much younger than I remembered. It was a commuter school, older students--but still, they were young. A few years after a job of mine in Fort Worth ended, I came back to visit. Most of the buildings downtown were still there, but of course, my company was gone, moved out, and so were so many of the people I'd known. Without my old company downtown, the place seemed, well, somehow incomplete. The trip itself proved a bit less than satisfying, the old haunts not so grand. Di Blasi's story is about the same kind of thing, a return to a past, an attempt to recapture those fondly remembered moments--and not so fondly (for me living in Forth Worth was not my favorite time in life either, but I still find a certain joy in thinking about that tough time). And it's about how we can't recapture that past. Here, it's a French man, come to see a place he'd ventured with his former wife--and a place where some American friends promise to return to visit him. He'll wait a long time. Read the story here at the Center for Fiction.

On "Flicker" by Kim Chinquee (246 words) ***

This little doozy is about a kind of creepy obsession. It's one that we can have sometimes, in work situations--or be the victim of--as taking advantage of the context is just too easy and too hard not to indulge. Here it's a building super. Read the story here at Center for Fiction.

On "Eyes" by Vito Racanelli (1819 words) ****

"Eyes" is the nickname of the main character, a somewhat dimwitted older man who is hired by drug dealers to look out for the cops and to occasionally beat up or intimidate people who need that sort of treatment. But despite that criminal background, "Eyes" is someone fully sympathetic in Racanelli's treatment of him, a man without a lot of other choices. I'm reminded of a few homeless people I've known who preferred the street to a shelter. Read the story here at the Center for Fiction.

On "That Whooshing Noise before the End" by Bob Thurber (1367 words) ****

So this tale transplants a French film about divorce and a couple on the verge of their own. Okay, perhaps not the most interesting premise. But now try this: the couple is already separated, as of eight hours ago. And yet, here they are at the movies together. Sounds ridiculous, but that's what makes it incredibly interesting. (I'm reminded a bit of the tales, in the recent economic crisis, of couples forced to continue living together beyond their divorce. Why bother divorcing?) Read the story here at the Center for Fiction.