The Half-Pint Flask

By DuBose Heyward

I picked up the book and regarded it with interest. Even its format suggested the- author: the practical linen covered boards, the compact and exact paragraphing. I opened the volume at random. There he was again: “There can be no doubt;” “An undeniable fact,” “I am prepared to assert.” A statement in the preface leaped from the context and arrested my gaze:

“The primitive American Negro is of a deeply religious nature, demonstrating in his constant attendance at church, his fervent prayers, his hymns, and his frequent mention of the Deity that he has cast aside the last vestiges of his pagan background, and has unreservedly espoused the doctrine of Christianity.”

I spun the pages through my fingers until a paragraph in the last chapter brought me up standing:

“I was hampered in my investigations by a sickness contracted on the island that was accompanied by a distressing insomnia, and, in its final stages, extreme delirium. But I already had sufficient evidence in hand to enable me to prove ”

Yes, there it was, fact upon fact. I was overwhelmed by the permanence, the unanswerable word of the printed page. In the face of it my own impressions became fantastic, discredited even in my own mind. In an effort at self-justification I commenced to rehearse my impressions of that preposterous month as opposed to Barksdale’s facts; my feeling for effects and highly developed fiction writer’s imagination on the one hand; and on the other, his cold record of a tight, three dimensional world as reported by his five good senses. (Continue Reading…)

Some Say Art Deals with the Unexpected

By James Dorr

ART: The quality or expression or performance of that which is pleasing to the senses; that which is raised to more than ordinary importance.

ARTIST:  One who produces art.

Is art permanent?  I seem to remember they said that in school, but what about music?  I mean, I know there are records and tapes now, but what about before those things were invented?  Would an original performance conducted by Beethoven be any less art because it hadn’t been taped?  Or an opera by Verdi be called commonplace simply because it hadn’t been filmed?

Some say art deals with the unexpected.  A couple of senators — you know, in Washington — say it’s obscene.  I say it’s beauty.

Just that:  Beauty.  It takes in the rest.

The unexpected?  The discovery of beauty in that which is plain.  The found importance.

My wife doesn’t understand art. (Continue Reading…)

Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turns the World Round Midnight

by Sheree Renée Thomas

Thistle stepped over an upturned root that twisted from the dark, wet earth.

“Your mama live near the river?” “Naw.”

“Your mama live in a tree?” “Nope.”

“Then what we doing?”

“Mama the river and the tree.” She moved with deliberate grace, each footfall a code that unlocked another hidden key. Wilder should have known. Every other word out of her mouth was some strange, cryptic poetry. She was more siren than sage, more whistle than song. In the few months they’d been hanging, he had gotten used to her “magic woman” guise. Bohemian bruja, wide-hipped hoodoo. Unlike the other women Wilder tried to lay with, Thistle felt sincere. At least she was original. Most other relationships Wilder had had, all ended the way he felt now, lost. With the others he would soon lose interest — or they would, tossing him back on the street, the fascination over before it had begun. Then he’d be off, duffel bag in hand, looking for cover. To Wilder, everyone worked so hard to be just like the next. What was the challenge in that? (Continue Reading…)

At the God Show

by Shaenon K. Garrity

6:15 A.M.

“It’ll be Pternoch the Fisher,” Sheila overheard one pilgrim say to another. “Why did we bother coming?”

“May the Green Damsel stitch your mouth shut until your blasphemies cease,” said the other. “We come to honor Her and reveal Her glory.” There was a silence as the two filled out their name tags, then, “Where’d you hear that from?”

“Everyone’s saying it. It always goes to the Sanguine group, and this year Pternoch is the Sanguine with the buzz.”

“It wasn’t a Sanguine last year. It was an Amoratus.”

“And look how that turned out. The judges will play it safe. It’s all politics.”

His companion snorted—whether in disbelief or reluctant agreement, Sheila couldn’t tell.

“I’m telling you. The fix is in.” (Continue Reading…)

Spunk

by Zora Neale Hurston

I

A giant of a brown-skinned man sauntered up the one street of the Village and out into the palmetto thickets with a small pretty woman clinging lovingly to his arm.

“Looka theah, folkses!” cried Elijah Mosley, slapping his leg gleefully. “Theah they go, big as life an’ brassy as tacks.”

All the loungers in the store tried to walk to the door with an air of nonchalance but with small success.

“Now pee-eople!” Walter Thomas gasped. “Will you look at ’em!”

“But that’s one thing Ah likes about Spunk Banks—he ain’t skeered of nothin‘ on God’s green footstool—nothin’! He rides that log down at saw-mill jus‘ like he struts ’round wid another man’s wife—jus‘ don’t give a kitty. When Tes’ Miller got cut to giblets on that circle-saw, Spunk steps right up and starts ridin’. The rest of us was skeered to go near it.”

A round-shouldered figure in overalls much too large, came nervously in the door and the talking ceased. The men looked at each other and winked. (Continue Reading…)

Two’s Company, Three Might Be a Sign of Demonic Possession

by Audrey Zhou

You didn’t take the usual precautions when Lin died.

You would find out later how it happened—slippery tile floor, the trials of installing a new shower curtain rod, and the surprisingly fragile vertebrae going up Lin’s neck—but in the moment all you knew was that there was a crash. When Lin didn’t respond after you called her name from the kitchen, you had enough wherewithal to grab the salt before stumbling to the bathroom, but not enough to keep from spilling a third of it all over yourself when you saw her body.

There was no pulse—your face twisted at the angle of her neck and all the blood, and you knew there couldn’t be—but you checked anyway. Then you took a deep breath and ignored every lesson you’d ever learned about how to conduct a proper resurrection. (Continue Reading…)