Volcanoes! by Hubert Vigilla

This thing is Greg all over. He read a Greek mythology book and the assignment was to make a board game, so here’s our beat-up Fireball Island from the garage with “Olympus! The Game!” written on one side in white out. He’s hot-glued some of his action figures at the corners. Superman (minus the cape) is Zeus, I think. I can’t really figure out the rest so I ask.

     “Dad,” he says and rolls his eyes. “That’s Batman, Wolverine, and Spider-Man.”

     “But which Greek gods are they?”

     “They’re just Batman, Wolverine, and Spider-Man.”

     “That doesn’t make any sense.”

     He points at a sticky note that reads, “This is very creative, Greg!” A-minus, smiley face. Greg beams and presses his tongue through the gap where a baby tooth used to be.

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Photo © Kerry Sellers

The September 2016 edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'Volcanoes!' by Hubert Vigilla. This story invites readers into a stay-at-home father's fantasy world, where tomorrow's lunch is left going stale on the counter while a rumbling volcano is growing in the garage. READ 'VOLCANOES!'

An Optical Illusion

Photo © Alina Hartwig

He should have had the decency to die while they were still married, Anna thought. He should have widowed her. There was dignity in that.

January 2015's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is Eimear Ryan's 'Optical Illusion', a tale of woman who must carefully navigate her ex-husband's funeral--a return to a once familiar setting, now made strange. Eimear Ryan is an up-and-coming Irish writer, featured alongside the likes of Pat McCabe, Mary Costello and Colin Barrett in Faber's Town and Country anthology of new Irish writing. CLICK HERE TO READ OPTICAL ILLUSION.

Forests of Antarctica

“That's it. Three weeks worth of stuff packed in twenty minutes. It might be a personal best,” Sam said, hovering in the doorway. It was after midnight when Sam walked into the kitchen of their cottage, where Diana liked to do her work at the massive butcher block table, and he looked tired but there was a warm glow in his cheeks. Diana stared at the screen, typing things that she would have to erase later and making notes that meant nothing.

'The Forests of Antarctica' by Courtney Watson takes place in Ushuaia, Argentina--the last stop before Antarctica--where the motto is the end of the world, the beginning of everything. Here we find a couple coping with the strain of distance as the husband ventures off on long-term scientific expeditions, leaving his wife to welcome a visitor from his past. Watson's work is understated and moving, accompanied by a photo by Russian photographer Dimitrii Smirnov. CLICK HERE TO READ FORESTS OF ANTARCTICA.

The Shawl

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© Jenna Weaver

"They found the shawl on the back of a chair in a bar, forgotten or discarded by its owner. It was beautiful, golden, with many coloured threads woven into it. Robert saw it first, and showed it to Helen .... Robert watched as Helen simply folded it neatly and placed it in her bag."

​'The Shawl' is a dirge of the ties that bind our relationships; the clutch and release in the power struggle to keep hold of the ones we love. This new work is by Brian Kirk, a writer who is as accomplished in poetry as he is in the short story. His image of 'the shawl' will stay with readers, long after they've finished reading. CLICK HERE TO READ 'THE SHAWL'.