Glimmer Train Stories, #104

Excerpts:

Amy X. Wang
Gravity
Jamie is busy thinking of skyscrapers, of standing atop tall, tall ladders and cranes, and what it would be like to lift the beams into place, again and again.

Perri Klass
Your Unhappiest Child
Sometimes it seems to me that we are all of us busy pretending to enjoy ourselves while really, we are worrying about our grown-up children.

Les Myers
Beth Nine
Now Max is staring at me. He wants his bone back. It takes a moment, but you can see the lesson register in the canine brain, a dimly perceived truth about trade-offs, about having your cake and eating it too.

Victoria Alejandra Garayalde
American Dream
The town is so small that even though all the fashion magazines in the seventies were advertising jeans for women, the only jeans in their town's department store were for men.

Christian Winn
The Lands East of Here
"Do you think you're ready?" Jules says, the near-distant whine accruing mass, volume. "I get worried that you're not."

Brian Yansky
The Curse
The elevator stops. The tall man has to duck down to get out. The doors slide shut and I'm alone with the fact that my daughter has put a curse on me.

Rachel Heng
Fairy Penguins
Without Louisa to referee, they let loose at each other without restraint, tearing holes in each other's hearts that could not be easily mended.

Kari Lund-Teigen
Crow Advice
The city overflows with abandoned furniture, books, clothes. People tie shoes together and fling them over power lines. Perfectly good shoes!

Jenzo DuQue
How to Harbor an Illegal
There were times when she seemed ready to collapse, but you were there, remedies in hand, chipotle burritos and foot rubs. It was nice, to carry each other through things.

Alexi Zentner
You Have My Full Attention
"You're not really looking for advice," I said. "Not really, no."

Lindsay Haber
Jewish Relatives Talking About My Sex Life
She's the one who started the discussion. Ida's the closest I have to a living grandparent. She's in her early eighties, so honest and blunt it can stun you if you aren't ready for it.

Jonathan Sapers
Your Lucky Day
I left behind too many important things. So what I'm here to tell you is, if you leave, take all your important things.

Celeste Ng
Interview by David Naimon
It's very difficult for us to communicate what we actually mean to other people. There's always going to be a little bit of distortion that's coming through. A lot of the human experience is that quest to try to be perfectly understood by somebody.