Melissa A Watkins

My foot is hidden under a pile of fallen leaves in a ditch near the highway. My hand, a mile or so away, buried under a shallow layer of dirt in what will be someone’s tulip bed next spring. My head—I don’t know where it is. Strange. Surely it’s

Everyone knows the Walls around the cities fell. What some people don’t remember is that the first one fell because of a laugh. It sounded like a ringing bell. Not like it came out of a baby at all. That was the first thing I told the scholar boy.

After my mother died, Dr. Rostrow called to ask me if I wanted anything out of her brain.

A crow told me not to trust owls while I was waiting to cross the street. I threw him the last of my bagel as payment. I’d never spoken to a crow before, never heard words in a voice that reedy and wise. It gulped down the bread and peered up at

So I guess if I’m gonna tell you about the ghost, first I have to tell you why I had to go all the way to Mama Tee’s house in the first place. Basically, this one day last summer me and my boys were just chillin in the parking lot of the rec center. We […]

Fiction for the 21st Century!

The first beat sent a rumble through the entire Mothership. Metal squealed. Another beat struck, then more followed, unspooling a string of funky percussion that hung in the air above the mechanical noises of the ship. The passengers and crew dangled from it, suspended breathless and hopeful, muscles held tight in anticipation. The string snapped. […]

A young woman gets a new job as a space pilot and is forced to reconsider her goals, ambitions and relationship.