At fourteen, Vanessa Hoffman started complaining of headaches and fatigue. Her stomach was finicky, and her appetite dwindled. Sometimes she found herself out of breath and sometimes her hands and legs felt numb and sometimes her joints hurt. Her balance would go off intermittently. She answered adults with “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am” and mostly […]
Fiction: Cheri Coke: Section Ten by James C. Stewart
“You would have killed me, Cheri. And we both know it.” I was talking to the dead, and shivering uncontrollably. Genuinely worried for my sanity, I fumbled with the Fiero’s heater. I followed the Monte Carlo’s misty taillights with a resolve born of resignation. We drove through the sleeping town. Terry was headed for a […]
Fiction: Cheri Coke: Section Nine by James C. Stewart
I’d been standing in the midst of the mess on McQuillan Street, standing in Glenn Allan’s living room staring at his corpse, staring at the duffle. And in that nightmarish, swimmy, drunken moment I’d discarded caution and grabbed the handles. I’d scanned the room, turned, and left the house. Again, the image track faded. I […]
Fiction: Cheri Coke: Section Eight by James C. Stewart
I went over the exchange while driving home. They obviously didn’t have anything, or I would have been arrested. Even if—and it was a considerable if— the witness (‘Snooper’s Society’ caused me to chuckle upon reflection) was able to describe the person in the truck, so what? What did they really have? A dark-haired individual […]