RETORTMAGAZINE.COM

TYRONE
Snow rumbles against the floorboards pushing me sideways. Flakes as big as doilies flutter into my headlights as the wipers do the best they can. They’re calling for a foot in the outlying areas and an outlying area is right where I’m headed, to my own dismay and Andree’s sputtering disbelief. Tyrone’s call came shortly [...]

‘As I’ve grown older–and colder–I’ve become irresistible’By way of introduction, I should tell you that when I was seven, my father took me and my little brother, Phil, on a car ride at 3 in the morning. We drove for hours and hours, stopping only for pop and potty. The next day, policemen took my [...]

Keep your eye on the prize and your finger on the trigger.Chad wore his pants around his buttocks and slung his wallet from a chain. He enjoyed the way the chain slammed against his thigh as he walked – it echoed his steps like thunderous applause, which he so desired, and also [...]

“People can’t wait to be brain-dead.”I’ve noticed my days have become the same. Mostly, I mean there’s differences – one day  of the week is pay day (if there had been any work) and sometimes the women change. But it’s all mostly the same. We were poor. Well, I was poor. [...]

“The head must’ve snapped off in the process…”Decapitated Alice
by Lydia Ship

Ora’s figurine of Alice from Alice in Wonderland has been decapitated.  Now Alice’s head rolls across Ora’s fabric swatches.  Ora brushes the head aside, gathers her swatches, and drives an hour to a double-warehouse with twenty-foot ceilings.  The warehouse is [...]