Rik Bogen: Timeshifter

It is a cube. A perfect cube, almost, at least down to the quantum uncertainty level where such stuff is important.Other than that peculiarity it does not seem to… More

The Man From Far Away

While clearing out his closet on the day he was to leave his home forever, my father, momentarily alert, unyieldingly stoic, and eighty-eight years at it, offers me an… More

Gulfisland Ferry Road

Little Joe hit Buster from behind with a three-foot section of galvanized steel, hit him so hard the single flat note of it echoed through the welding shop like… More

Habits

I“Thank you,” Mary Brown said with a polite and sing-song cheerfulness, accepting the bill from the hand of old Mrs. Dowding. As her fingers touched in the price numbers,… More

San Quentin, July 4th, 1975

I stabbed with my right fist, coming up to the imaginary point of my opponent’s chin. The “clack” of the cell doors being unlocked came closer. I bobbed, ducking… More

The Seventh Sense

A death cloud hovered over the prison. My Seventh Sense was still dormant. Chico walked around the yard against the flow of traffic—the first omen of doom, and I… More

Static Night

Apartment 25A stepped back from Jake as he stepped up from the parking lot. The too-crisp edges of the cheap apartment door flexed as if laughing. Next to it,… More

Gumbo

Frankie Hart’s moral sense had been on life support since he was twelve years old, when he stabbed another fifth-grader in the eye with a pencil for making fun… More

Kitchen Workers

The damp heat grabs me like a childhood monster with clammy paws, pulls me in, smothers my body and makes it hard to breathe. I sweat profusely from the… More

Release Date

On shaky knees Carson takes the first step onto the front walk. For six long years the address before him had been only numbers and letters. Now, in the… More