That afternoon, we had our cab driver let us out at the driveway to our apartment building’s underground garage. “Why is the garage door opening?” Alison said, as she got out. Her voice was muffled by her mask, a murkiness I’d never grown used to
Fiction
Advice
Ever noticed how we can't complain without giving each other advice? "The way I'm eating in this pandemic, I'm going to turn into a beached whale." — Don't you exercise? — "Like I told you, I have a stationary bike." — Oh right, what you
Accommodation: A Story
Wordgathering has published my story, "Accommodation," in its current issue. Here's the link: https://wordgathering.com/vol14/issue1/fiction/spratt/
The Appointment: A Story
If I tell Tricia that blonde doesn't look good on her, she'll be annoyed. She'll think I'm harping on again about being old. Well, we're both getting old—are old. Why is it that helping friends always gets you into trouble? Not that Tricia's
Integrity: A Story
Could I have saved us? Despite my better judgment, this question haunts my sleep. Perhaps the most basic flaw in our Recoline civilization is that we forget history. To recite what ought to be common knowledge, the Magnitokes were a genetic
Crane in the Clouds
Up there, in the mist and passing clouds, is a yellow crane: not the bird, but the manmade mechanism whose arm rises as it lifts heavy objects, moves sideways somewhere, then lowers as it deposits them. How can a heavy machine like a crane stay so