13-52. Forty Stories
Last year, after twelve stories,
we took temporary leave.
We owe you thanks,
for your patience.
We also owe you stories.
Here they are.
Forty new pieces of work,
some rich, some strange,
all surprising.
Taken together,
they fill me with awe.
Click the image
or link at right
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this collection
to your device as a PDF.
On July 17, we’ll also make Forty Stories available as an ebook through all the major retailers.
For free, for good.
Thank you for waiting. And enjoy.
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11. Alaska
By Tom Franklin
Our aim was this: Alaska. To abandon Mobile at dawn without telling anybody, not even our girlfriends or our boss at the plant. Bruce knew a bail jumper who got a deckhand job on a crab boat off the Alaskan coast where she made five hundred dollars a day. Bruce was divorced for the third time and I’d never been married, so we planned to sell our cars and Bruce’s house trailer and buy an olive... Read More.
10. The Cure
By Rahul Mehta
I told the doctor over the phone I needed an appointment fast—tomorrow, if possible. Are you going to hurt yourself, she asked, or someone else? No, I said. I was burning money. She said, Tomorrow at three, and I asked, Do you take check or credit card, because obviously I can’t carry around cash, ha ha, but she didn’t seem to get the joke. I was at my best friend Yvonne’s house when I called.... Read More.
9. The Great Frustration
By Seth Fried
In the Garden of Eden, a cat steadies itself on a branch while quietly regarding a parrot. The air in the garden is heavy and mixed with the stink of all those animals resting below. No blood is spilled in the garden, and so the roles of most of the animals are greatly reduced. Though most of them are still, as yet, unaware of this fact. They linger in vague proximity to one another, marveling at their... Read More.