Orbits

She flips her glasses onto her hair where the shine is slippery. It falls back down to her nose, plastic lenses smudging. She goes for a drive wearing the blurry wedge and thinks she must be imagining the sight of two moons in the sky. One higher than the other, they supervise the intersection. "That was just Mars approaching Earth," her husband says tartly. He’s quite the mansplainer but she knows a defunct theory when she hears one. She’s seen for herself that it’s possible for the sun to set while the moon rises on anything else, anything at all.

From Guest Contributor Cheryl Snell

Cheryl's recent fiction has appeared in Gone Lawn, Necessary Fiction, Pure Slush, and elsewhere.

Close Call

The traffic light turned amber. On any other day Geoff would have braked, but today something compelled him to floor the accelerator.

His wife, Janet, looked over, alarmed. "What are you doing?"

Grim-faced, Geoff focused on the road ahead. The light went red. Janet covered her eyes as the car shot through the intersection.

Safely on the other side, Geoff eased off on the accelerator and breathed out.

"What was that all about?" Janet asked.

Geoff was lost for words.

Glancing in the mirror, his jaw dropped as he watched a jack-knifing lorry careering into stationary cars at the intersection.

From Guest Contributor David Lowis

The Change

“Watta you gonna do?”

“I don’t know.” It was getting dark.

“You could run away.”

“Where would I go?”

“California?”

“That far?”

“Or Mexico.”

“I don’t speak Spanish.”

“Then just give it back.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I already spent it on candy.”

His friend thought about that. “Can I have some?”

“I ate it all.”

After watching the traffic at the intersection for a while, the boy’s friend got up. “I can’t go to California,” he said apologetically.

“Why not?”

“I’m not allowed to cross the street.”

“Yeah,” the little boy still sitting on the curb admitted, “me neither.”

From Guest Contributor Jean Blasiar

In A Momentary Trance

Her gentle swaying at the intersection made him stop abruptly on the sidewalk. She wore large headphones that were cocked forward on her head. Her eyes were closed and her head moved from side to side as if caught in an otherworldly trance. Her hands tapped out a sporadic beat against her sides.

Her lips began to move slowly at first then increased in speed. He watched her with a growing anticipation that left him glued in place. Suddenly, her mouth opened wide and she vehemently sang out lyrics to a song he never heard before, but wished he had.

From Guest Contributor Zane Castillo

Go Lightly

Between classes, Hollie and I liked to sneak over to the coffee shop across the road. The trouble was, it was a busy intersection with no crossing points; what a relic! So imagine how frightened I was when she just took off into the busy traffic. Between the perils of angry horns and fast-paced steel she somehow made it to the other side.

Being more sensible, I waited until it was quieter. Then I sprinted over eyes shut and caught up to her.

“It's ok,” she said as I caught my breath, “they are not allowed to run you over.”

From Guest Contributor George Aitch

The Curse

To this day, I don't know what I did to anger her. I was waiting at the stoplight at Pinehurst and Rock Creek. An old woman was crossing, decrepit really, and if I was guilty of anything, it was allowing my gaze to linger a fraction too long, perhaps just a tincture of disgust in my expression. When she looked in my direction, I immediately turned away.

That's when she began screaming, condemning me and all my future progeny. She even spit on my windshield.

From that day, I've never approached an intersection without being stopped at a red light.