“Have I reached Frieda Grompkin?”

“Oh. In that case, thank you for the call.”

From Guest Contributor David Sydney

My clammy hands make the number I pulled soggy. I roll the paper’s corner between my fingers until it looks like the twisted end of those poppers you throw at the ground. The chairs are ice cold and don’t warm up to me. Who am I waiting for to call my name? The slip is blurry. There’s no number after all. My skin is on fire. The paper disintegrates. Now I’ll never know when I’ll be called. The gift of creation is eating me alive. I really wanted to get that checked out. But I don’t think anyone is coming.

From Guest Contributor Madeline van Batum

Madeline lives in Colorado with her cat and hopes that one day she can go back to her home country of the Netherlands to finally meet the Flying Dutchman.

Our daily newspaper when I was growing up would publish on Saturdays a page of commentaries, advice columns, comics, etc., by teenagers. Although I can’t remember the exact subject of my commentary – the unfortunate phrase “the rising tide of communism” sticks in my mind – I do remember my intense pride of authorship. For the first time, I felt avenged on all the adults who had ever undervalued me. I deliberately showed the clipping, with my name and age, 13, in boldface at the bottom, to Mr. Eakely, my eighth-grade English teacher. “What’s that?” he said, pointing at the number. “Your IQ?”

From Guest Contributor Howie Good

Howie Good is the author of Failed Haiku, a poetry collection that is the co-winner of the 2021 Grey Book Press Chapbook Contest and scheduled for publication in summer 2022.

You don’t believe me, Doctor!

He looked it up… “googled” they used to say… left alone for days, many pets died.

From Guest Contributor E. Barnes

here is my number call would you like to see thanks I had a really I think I am falling my love is like a shall I compare thee to my true love hath I will love you until to be my lawfully wedded from this day forward to cherish till death do us what God has joined how could you treat me how long have you been after all that I have I want to get a have filed a petition for citing irreconcilable differences irretrievably broken by this agreement decree nisi to voluntarily be duly executed and delivered

From Guest Contributor Ian Fletcher

John, riding down the dark empty road at three o’clock in the morning, takes a swig of beer.

Lying dead with his head on the steering wheel and his thumb pressing on Amy’s cell number, the phone begins to dial.

From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher