Glimmer Train Stories, #64

Glimmer Train presents literary short stories by award-winning and upcoming writers. Here are some Cheri JohnsonGuralnickWhenever one of those little wolves came in on the same pitch as another, the first wolf lifted or dropped its voice to make it sound as if the pack were growing all the time. Susan PeraboWhy They Run the Way They DoSweetie, Tommy says miserably. And right then it becomes apparent that one of us is going to start crying. I m not sure which of us, but either way it s something to be thwarted at all costs. James SepseyNot When a Day Can Be This GoodYou re thirty-seven. I need you to be a man. Like your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather. All men. God, you d think it d run in the family at some point. D.B.C. PierreInterview by Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin RabalaisI never quite believe writers who say they re up at seven a.m. to write a thousand words. They have a cup of tea, and then write two thousand words after lunch. I can t see that happening to me. Antonya NelsonFalsettoHe had never been an ordinary boy. He was so thin that people grew angry when he wouldn t eat. Deborah TarnoffCrazy Ukraine GirlAll over the world people are preoccupied with building memorials to help them remember. But the smart ones are busy forgetting. Susan PetroneThis Is How It HappenedI don t think any of them are in actual they understand that I am dying, they re just getting used to the idea in incremental fashion. Elissa Minor RustIn My Mother s TrailerMy girlfriend s son, Charlie, is watching a boy about his age resuscitate a frog on tonight s news. To be fair, the boy is only pretending to resuscitate the frog, a re-enactment of the actual event, which happened earlier in the week. Christiana LangenbergHalf of What I KnowThe theory is the dog committed suicide. My father tells me this when I get home from school, after he says Luigi is gone, and I ask him what he means. Mary GaitskillInterview by Sarah Anne JohnsonI was also going through physical changes, what they euphemistically call the change of life. It was like the ground was shifting under my feet, so it was hard for me to write from a solid place. Janice SoderlingRented RoomsThere is a succession of rooms, all of them temporary, as life is temporary. Some of them, many of them, are filled with laughter, with friendship, with affection, with hope. Andrew RoePlease Don t Tell Me That We go on one of those streets that seems to repeat itself every few gas stations, Home Depots, Taco Bells, Burger Kings. After that some apartments or a storage place or a used-car lot, and then the same scene all over again. Benjamin PercyThe Caves in OregonThe cave a lava tube runs beneath their house, their neighborhood, and beyond, a vast tunnel that once carried in it molten rock the color of an angry sun.