Recommended Reading from Online Magazines

Great new(ish) stories from around the Web. Forget work for a minute and read a story. It’s good for you.

– At their old house Maggie got out of the car and looked sadly at the front windows. She could see the back of an unfamiliar couch. God used to jump on the couch whenever she heard a car door slam, wagging frantically, hoping her owners had returned, even if her owners were already home. There was a Land Rover in the driveway, with cheetah-print covers on the front seats and a baby seat in back. — Kristen Kearns in Failbetter

– Monkey-Boy covers his head and sees how dark it can be in the middle of the day. He picks up the floor mat and puts it on the seat. They have been traveling for a few days and there are many interesting things to be spotted underneath his mother’s seat: a few hardened French fries, one of his mother’s press-on nails, a dead leaf, pieces of dried mud, and a plethora of coins, the dirt and encrusted grime making the Presidents’ faces nearly smooth. — John Counts in Monkeybicycle

– The soda machine is humming the wrong vowel. It hums. It makes a sound so electric it hurts like accidentally biting your tongue. And it’s amazing it belongs to no one. It is its own country. A few quarters and you’re not thirsty but all your quarters go in and never come out and you lose them to the other side. Which reminds me of how strange parking lots are. How they’re just there to park things. And they’re just sitting there all the time. — Corey Zeller in Keyhole Magazine

– You: There are things you say to me that I am shocked by; they are so hateful. “Why did you ever want to love me?” I ask. “By all of your accounts I am a horrible human being.” My face burns hot on the pillow and it’s hard to breathe. Punching myself is impossible now. When the tears well up I get out of bed and walk outside. I take myself into the snow and walk until I kill myself. I am paper thin and see-through. There will be no missing me. In the morning you wake, make coffee and drive to work. — xTx in Pindeldyboz

– The days go by. The house is crowded with pilgrims. People from other cities, other lands. They stand in the man’s dining room and stare at the pig. Some claim that it speaks to them; others cry for joy. — Ben Loory in Dogzplot