An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Hexagon, Issue 9, June 2022
Leslie yanked the toggle on the Build-a-Pet arcade machine with one hand and mashed the big round buttons with the other. On the screen looming above her head, a colorful, twisted ladder bent and spun around, and large friendly letters spelled out words she couldn’t read yet. Though she did recognize the letter L. She knew that one from her own name. Continue reading “Build-a-Pet”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn and Other Flights of Fancy
A tiny dragon burrowed into the big toe on my right foot, curled up around the joint, and lives in there now. Well, sleeps there. It seems to sleep all day long, like a cat in a sunbeam. Except, a dragon. In my toe.
Most of the time, I don’t notice it at all. But sometimes, the dragon shifts in its sleep, writhing and rearranging, and I feel all the spines along its back and long, coiling tail scrape and screech against my bones, brightening my foot with pain like lightning forks across the sky. Continue reading “The Dragon in My Toe”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Theme of Absence, September 2021
Blake had heard octopuses were smart, but it was hard to believe, looking at the blurring mass of muscle. He scooped the hand net into the cold water of the storage cell, like a plastic tub set into the deck of his small fishing boat. Tentacles writhed in a squirming reddish brown mass below. He couldn’t even make out a single individual creature in there. Just limbs. Squishy, slippery limbs. Continue reading “Eight Ways”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn and Other Flights of Fancy, December 2024
First, you tear the eyes out, digging your fingertips into the sockets around them, squishing the bulbs to get your fingers under them. They’ll be slippy, and you’ll have to squeeze hard while yanking out, or the eye won’t come.
Once you have the eyeballs pulled out of their sockets, rip quickly to tear them from the gooey threads still connecting them. When they come free, throw them at the floor. Stomp on them with your boot. The heavier the boot, the better. Continue reading “The Dancing Swords”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Every Day Fiction, June 2017
“If you could do anything in the world for your birthday — anything at all — what would you do?”
My daughter, Layla, mirrors the question that I asked her last month about her birthday when I was looking for clues as to what I should give her, what kind of party I should throw her. She’s only five, too young to be looking for clues. Continue reading “Birthday”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Allasso, Volume 2: Saudade, April 2012
There was once a sheep that could have been a sheep with fifteen other sheep, all living on a farm. But, one day, a man came and invited that sheep to live at the petting zoo with the pygmy goats, pigs, rabbits, and Shetland ponies there. So, that one sheep joined the petting zoo.
Then, there were fifteen sheep left. Continue reading “One Sheep”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Every Day Fiction, October 2015
Jenny felt inside her pocket. There was a small, smooth pebble that she’d been hiding since she was tiny. A multi-dimensional creature had appeared to her and begged her to keep it safe. If she dug her fingernail into it…
But she mustn’t. She mustn’t. She had to be strong.
See, it was the self-destruct button for the universe. Continue reading “Small Smooth Pebble”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023
QuestCrusher20 zipped through the zone, zooming from one quest to the next without reading the text. She didn’t need to. Just follow the dots on the game map, and like breadcrumbs they led her from a cluster of satyrcorns to kill for their horns to an area strewn with mecha gears that the friendly robots of Robotica needed her to gather. Quest after quest, she could figure them out on the fly, and it only slowed her down to read the flavor text or listen to the NPCs tell their backstories. Continue reading “Speed Questing”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023
Once upon a time, there was a soul that wanted to anchor itself into the world. The soul watched all the creatures in the world, trying to decide what shape its anchor should take.
The mouse was small and could explore tiny places.
The deer had long legs and could run through the woods.
The bird had wings and could soar through the sky. Continue reading “Greatest of Them All”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in All Worlds Wayfarer, Issue XII, September 2022
Eggshell cracked, and the dome of the world broke away, showing a whole other world, infinitely larger and more complicated, beyond the confines of the duckling’s natal home. It was time to lift her head — breaking the eggshell further, widening the crack in it — and then spread her wings, shaking out the scraggly, wet feathers plastered to her dimpled skin, letting them begin to dry into soft, yellow down. Continue reading “Stranger Than a Swan”