Tag Archives: Fiction

by hipacificreview | 03/23/2023 · 6:31 am

After Leaving

by Shannon McLeod

There’s a surrender and ease in being told what to do. It was something I never would have anticipated missing after leaving him.

Once I’ve settled in at the Best Western, I think of calling my sister, Astrid. I’d hate to disturb her, though. She’s recently given birth to twins. I don’t want to burden her. I’ll wait to talk until she asks me for help, I think. She may want a babysitter soon.

I decide I’ll take myself out for dinner. It’s been so many months since I’ve been out to a restaurant. Date nights dwindled after the early stage of our relationship. I suspect he didn’t feel proud of me anymore, didn’t feel I was worth showing off or spending money on. Continue reading →

The Things Left Behind

by Jamin Stortz

It had been three weeks since my brother left before I entered his room. I couldn’t bear it, preferring to leave the door closed and, with it, the possibility that he was still behind it, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall listening to music with his eyes closed like he always did. It was good that he was gone, I would tell myself, repeatedly, despite the sickness in my stomach that told me otherwise. Mom said he was better off, though she couldn’t look me in the eye when she said it. Continue reading →

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Tagged as El Salvador, Fiction, flash fiction, immigration, Jamin Stortz

by iamjuliahawkins | 01/12/2023 · 6:08 am

Jackson

by Adam Matson

The first time you hang out with friends you haven’t seen in a while, you realize how weird they are. That’s how it was with Jerry and Reesie (rhymes with the peanut butter cup) Tolliver. I hadn’t seen them in almost ten years. This long hiatus in the friendship was nobody’s fault. Life drives people apart. Continue reading →

Slow Fall

by Mark Brazaitis

He thought the end would come fast. Within seconds of leaping off the bridge, he would hit the dark water twelve stories below. But time was betraying him. He had leapt, but his descent had slowed to the pace of his depression, which had been gnawing at him for months. He was, it seemed, being granted a reprieve of sorts. Continue reading →

Journey to Nā Mokulua

by Giulio Rocca

The Mokes beckon to me in the early morning light. Even as I step onto the sand, I hear my grandmother’s voice: “Their proper name is Nā Mokulua, keiki,” she says. “Moku Nui and Moku Iki.” Continue reading →

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Tagged as Fiction, Giulio Rocca, Hawaiian Culture