Winter 2001
Dixon P. Otto: The Ski Lesson	The snow has returned, enough for the cross-country skier, Buck, to come to Lattie. She waits at her window, remembering the times he magically appeared through a gap in the trees, even skiing to her through the fury of a blizzard. As her mother flits about her like a nurse, Lattie wonders, will he come?
Nelson James Dunford: Is There a Tiger in the Sky?	"I took a girl named Angelina to the fair. She was many years younger than I. I had met her in church. When I first saw Angelina, I loved her. Light from the rose window had lit a starry diadem in her hair. She had sung the hymns with the voice of an angel. When we had knelt to pray, I had asked God to give her to me."
Jebba M. Handley: Remembering Red	"Remembering Red" is the story of two young girls-Nora Jane, already famous and spoiled, and Margaretta, longing for beauty and dazzle such as Nora Jane's. An altercation ensues in which Nora Jane is wounded, but it is Margaretta who carries the scar. Redemption comes when a chance meeting years later proves that Nora Jane's own character has been the cause of her unhappiness, not the childhood wound.
Jim Kerbaugh: Questions and Answer	Brother Wallace, my Sunday School teacher, had told us we'd end up in the soup for sure on Judgment Day if we lied to our parents or teachers or anybody else old enough to matter. But I was stuck. If I told the truth, everybody would be miserable all night. Anyway, nobody else but God knew, and Brother Wallace had also said he'd forgive any sin so long as you were sorry for it, which I already was, and if you owned up to it, which I meant to do-someday.
Norman Lock: Crossing the Threshold	In Crossing the Threshold, the characters have arrived, together with its author (Norman Lock), at the end of a long and demanding journey, physical and metaphysical-a narrative anabasis into turn-of-the-century Africa. Not the real Africa, but one of the imagination in which the drama of 20th century ideas is enacted by historical figures essential to the modern consciousness. In the story published here, a family of British colonists is seen on the verge of madness and dissolution as Africa itself prepares to expel it and all others who have attempted to appropriate it. Africa cannot be appropriated, cannot be known or understood. It stands as the ground base of existence.
Saikat Mazumdar: Love	It was hot in the kitchen-the summer sun scorching the tiled roof and the closeness of the clay oven with charring cinders and a dim, smoldering fire. The maid paused. She wiped her brows with the hem of her sari. The beads of sweat on her dark forehead wetted the hem into a moist patch. Her threadbare blouse clung to her back and runnels of sweat appeared in the creases of her patient body. But she noticed nothing. Nobody could. The wispy fumes of smoke from the oven and the heap of vegetable skin and the mildewed pickles were no different from her dark and silent, squatting presence-one failed to notice anything but the perfect camouflage into which she blended.
Jack O'Connor: Seeing Andromeda	A woman facing an emotional crisis seeks refuge in a borrowed cottage along the shoreling of Puget Sound. She indulges herself with the isolation of nature, particularly the majesty of the starry night sky and it's great jewel, the Andromeda galaxy. Strangely comelling music invades her evenings from an unknown source. She looks for resolution in an ancient ritual.
George Pryde: Talking to a Stranger	Talking to a Stranger is the story of a professional woman at the top of her career who one day begins to experience visions, seeing people around her suddenly againg 10 to 20 years. A psychiatrist cannot help, the visions increase until, looking in the mirror while talking to her daughter, she sees her daughter's reflection and . . .
Brock Taylor: Mombasa	Frank had brought the ubiquitous thermos of Margaritas and plastic glasses, and after a while we found ourselves in a little, deserted white cove that even on a windy day would have made a calm harbor. Frank poured us each a drink and we waded into the water, then sank to our knees and lounged there, floating but not floating, sitting, kneeling, bobbing in the body-water temperature, salty ocean. I let go of my glass and it floated before me, the water was so still; then all four of the glasses were floating naturally, as if on the table between us. It was warm, maybe a hundred Fahrenheit, the sky that deep blue of the coastal tropics, and the silence booming.
Margaret Peach Vaught: Three's a Crowd	"Stella didn't know when her long-suffering loathing evolved into downright planning. She only noticed the ultimatum she muttered to herself several times a day had changed from "that dog has got to go" to "that DOG has GOT to GO!"
Richard Vaughn: Another House	On a crisp, thawing Minnesota spring morning, Lemuel drives his wife, Malvina, and their two grandsons, Robby and Dennis, into Arbordale. Because of a stroke, he's half decided on a house in town because he can no longer work the farm. But it's a dusty, foul place where grisly murder has been done, and therefore a bargain. Malvina dreads the idea of moving in, but resigns herself for the good of the family. Robby, seven-years-old, senses an evil spirit within, and is wary of not only a beast hiding in the inky black cistern but also adults he has trusts who now wshisper secrets. It is, he has been told, only another house.
Paul F. Wolf: Three Valuable Coins	In the story, "Three Valuable Coins," the main character, Eddie Ways, has fallen into thinking that the relief he seeks from his troubled life lies in the escapes of alcohol and easy women. But when he meets a certain street girl, who remains unnamed, he has actually met his match. Cunning and brash, she robs him and shows no fear of life, or the police, leaving Eddie bewildered and ashamed of how he conducted hiimself on the night of their encounter. But there's value in all things, a barfly named Mike has mentioned, and the experience leaves its mark branded on Eddie, to play on and on in his mind.
Aimee Miller Zaring: The Forgotten Key	A year after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's, widower and well-respected community leader Winston Gray decides he would rather end his own life than allow the disease to end him. On the day he intends to carry out his plans, Gray visits his favorite neighborhood donut shop to make nice with the people his "imposter" has offended. But can the very illness that threatens to strip Gray of his memories and self-respect actually save him?