Jeremy Ray

I had wanted to see my grandparents’ house one last time before it was demolished. So when my flight was canceled, I couldn’t stop crying. Tomorrow my grandparents’ house would be nothing but rubble.  I must have fallen asleep at the airport—I must be dreaming… because I’m looking up at the yellow house. I hear […]

Maybe recognizes the old, raspy-voiced woman humming. She’s the only one that pets him in the backyard. He loves how she scratches behind his ears and tells him he’s a good boy. He pushes his head through the fence. ​ “Hello, cutie,” she says. He smells that she means him no harm, that there is affection

Neil strolled through the forest. He hadn’t been here since 2003, when the storm knocked down his and Merida’s giant oak tree. ​ Their marriage came crashing down too, in its own tempestuous storm. She had carved into the tree: ‘Neil & Merida 4 ever’. But all that remained was an ugly stump. Yesterday, a mutual

The finely dressed girl with thick black hair places the necklace around Becca’s neck. Becca stares at her balding reflection. “Beautiful,” says the girl, no trace of sarcasm present in her smile. “My mom’s a cancer survivor.” Becca’s own cancer has metastasized; she squeezes the girl’s hand lovingly. “I’ll take the necklace,” she says. She’s

Everything you need to know about a man is in the books he reads. I scour my suitor’s library as he uses the restroom. Men without books are undeserving of another date. I demand a man with character, depth, knowledge. A man’s library is his mind, and my suitor’s is a labyrinth. I run my

The dragon begrudgingly lumbered into the village, as he always did the first day of spring. As he passed each hut, he put on a show of smoke and fire. The maiden tied to a tree screamed as he neared. He bit through her ropes and carried the kicking and screaming lass, between pointed teeth,

A palm reader told Mr. Complish at thirteen that he would grow up to be the destroyer of the world. Mr. Complish did not want that. Who does? He had a gift for math, science, and engineering, but he pursued none. He did not want to devise a deadly bomb, nor program killer robots, nor

“Not interested,” Peg said, after Bruce asked her out. ​ Who did she think she was? She was a four on a good day. He was varsity everything! A nine on a bad day! A girl like her was lucky to be asked out by a guy like him! ​ He yelled all this while

They call me Mr. Smiley because I’m always smiling. You’d be surprised how few questions I’ve been asked about who I am. Not one of them realizes they saw me as a little boy, the night they ruined my mother. They only care about themselves, and that’s fine by me.  ​ I act concerned. Mirror

Tamsy runs through the dark pasture, chased by his father’s screams. The drunken man casts his voice like a fishing net, but nothing he says will ensnare Tamsy; his bare feet know the way to the woods. ​ Once there, he falls in front of his favorite tree and hugs its roots as he sobs.