Category Archives: Al McDermid

You didn’t scream and carry on. No, you where much too angry for that sort of display. Your words instead came out as pure liquid nitrogen, moving slowly, as if trudging through sludge. Still, despite this glacial speed, I duck … Continue reading →

I didn’t notice it sitting there, in the middle of the table, when I first walked into the kitchen. I should have, but I didn’t. I poured my coffee as usual and stood in front of the sink drinking it, … Continue reading →

Every weekday, a sea of humanity, over 2 million strong, surges through the turnstiles at Shinjuku Eki, the busiest metro station in the world. And every weekday morning, not only do I join this morass; I must also swim against … Continue reading →

I put the shell to my ear and I listen, listen to the sound, the sound of my blood, my blood rushing, rushing through my hand. From my hand, the sound flows, and I listen, caught in the tide, the … Continue reading →

I stood on the beach, staring out at the flat sea, thinking this was how Magellan first saw it. The movement of the water lapping at my feet was almost imperceptible. A band of gray clouds hung over the sea, … Continue reading →

52|250 thanks our flash contributor Al McDermid, for the use of his collage “Panel 3.7″ as this week’s art. This is not solely my art, but is a collaborative collage created in conjunction with 6 other artists (I was #7 … Continue reading →

At one point I had gotten it my head to move to Los Angeles and so picked up a copy of the LA Weekly, a magazine I had never before read. The cover story of this particular issue was about … Continue reading →

The lock clicked and I slipped easily into the office, immediately sensing that something was off. Perfume, the scent too strong to have been left over since quitting time. I remained still, but sensed no one. I crossed the room … Continue reading →

On the plane in, some guys fingered their crosses, but I didn’t have one, so I fiddled nervously with my signal clicker, breaking it. By then we were on our feet and hooking up. I had joined the airborne because … Continue reading →

The city’s last payphone rings as I pass it. I consider walking on but the phone is insistent. I look up and down the darkening street. I see no one so I answer it. An operator comes on and says, … Continue reading →

The former U.S. Naval Station at Subic Bay in the Philippines was separated from its port town by a large drainage canal we called Shit River. On the base side, one found hot water, wide streets, cheeseburgers, bowling, all the … Continue reading →

The first thing to slip through the fog in my head is Sublime screaming, “My god, what is that awful smell?” As if a cue, I whiff. Clove cigarettes, the cloying scent reaching me through the wool covering my face. … Continue reading →

Perhaps because we were not as deep into the impossible as we had thought, we found no dragons and so slipped back into our own reality. The Police had gone, but the car was still there. I say, “This is … Continue reading →

Instant, searing pain, then . . . nothing, followed by a vague awareness. He stood gaping, too shocked to speak, watching his body slump to the floor, and finally, surprise at the realization. ‘She shot me! The ungrateful brat actually … Continue reading →

He’s on his third shot, liquid fortification, when she walks up and stands next to him at the bar. “Buy me a drink,” she says. He looks at the bartender, who looks at her. “Same as him.” “What are we … Continue reading →

The divine winds were still, so the pitiless roar of enemy bombers was drowned only by the desperate wail of the air raid sirens. From the faintest purr of the first enemy plane until the last bomb fell, the world … Continue reading →

Last Bus to Translation by Al McDermid From the diner, the report sounded like a gun shot. I turned to see an old greyhound bus rolling into Clyde’s station, one of its back right tires obviously blown. The door opened … Continue reading →

  Street photography is defined by wikipedia as “a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings.” I discovered ‘street’ photography shortly after joining … Continue reading →

He sat down with no ‘hello’ or nothing and said, ‘I need to talk.’ Not, ‘we need to talk,’ like when someone wants to lay some serious shit on you, which I guess is fine since I can’t imagine what … Continue reading →

I’m sitting in the park, under a big maple, intent on reading some poetry, when a fledgling drops out of the tree and lands next to me. It is so young and ugly that I cannot discern its breed, and … Continue reading →

The first postcard was from the Grand Canyon, posted marked the week before. The message read, ‘Dear Penelope, This is where I met your mother. Love, Dad.’ A cruel hoax, being played by I didn’t know who, since my father … Continue reading →

I was just beyond the smallest dot on the map, a crossroads with a diner and a gas station, when my water pump went out. I’d seen a tow truck parked next to the gas station, so I pulled off … Continue reading →

Bad Haircut was having another bad hair day. So bad in fact that Bad vowed to not leave the house. Happy that, thanks to summer, she wouldn’t have to go to school, she sat in the kitchen, moping over her … Continue reading →

When I inherited the house I grew up in, the house my grandfather built, I knew the upkeep and back taxes would wipe me out. Even the renovations required to make the place truly marketable were out of the question. … Continue reading →

. The road through the city’s largest cemetery is lined with ancient flowering cherry trees and for a few days in spring, the canopy is a riot of pink. The petals fall like snow, forming drifts in the curbs. Although … Continue reading →

I point out an elk standing at the edge of the forest, but we’re traveling at over seventy, so you miss it, and then sulk until we see another. We pull into the next rest stop to check the map—it … Continue reading →

I dearly want to reject Darwin reject the notion that fragile egotistical self-absorbed vipers are evolved life-forms reject human superiority- larger brains aid deception opposable thumbs are best for gripping daggers reject that we are little more than clever monsters … Continue reading →

The tattered dress proved more resilient than flesh, shrouding her bones, lying in a ditch. In the ditch where they’d left her. Where they’d left her? Who’d left her? She looked at the bones, at the summer dress. The tree … Continue reading →

“Okay,” Jim said, “I’ll start. Batman.” Faster than a speeding bullet, Mark responded with, “Superman. There, I win.” “Hey,” Jim protested, “that’s not how it’s played.” Mark sat in front of the fire, poking at the burning slates they’d torn … Continue reading →

The last time I saw my only brother, he was spitting mad, but refused to discuss it; the ‘slight’ was something not within my control. Our mother tried to reconcile us, to no avail, and so, I went my way … Continue reading →

When he became old enough to know that names were given by parents, in his case, by his mother, and realizing that she could have named him anything, he was not happy knowing that shechose to name him ‘Lucky’. His … Continue reading →

The signs were clear, clear as the oily waters of the Gulf of Mexico; clear as the sky above of the burning lungs of the earth; clear as the melt water from the last glacier. The temperatures rose, breaking records, … Continue reading →

When the pounding started again on Sunday morning, I decided to look over the high fence to investigate. My neighbor I discovered was building a boat. The keel was down, about 25 to 30 feet long, and most of the … Continue reading →

Sleep views the world at right angles and has never seen a rainbow. He lives by the river where he was once a ferryman, in shack that he built from railroad ties, orange crates, and old typewriters. The shack is … Continue reading →

I hold it in my hand, feel its compact, substantial weight, and marvel at the mechanical precision. I insert a single bullet, my only bullet, and spin the cylinder. I listen to it purr, and when it stops, I pull … Continue reading →

He found himself standing in their daughter’s room, staring at the dusty mobile of the planets, unsure of how he’s come to be there. He looked at her bed, her desk, the unfinished homework. He considered opening the window, but … Continue reading →

“And then Jon shows up, hovering like he wants to sit, and you know how Del feels about Jon…” The sensation starts at the back of head and I mistaken it for a mosquito, though I know it’s on the … Continue reading →

It was the same dream, the same dream every night for, for how long I couldn’t remember, the same burning, searing flesh, streaming blood, rivers of it, every night without fail. I awoke with a start, disoriented, my mouth dry. … Continue reading →

“What is the world but a pile of contradictions?” he had said, launching once again into one of his favorite themes. “Dark is the absence of light and evil the absence of good, and yet, can one exist without the … Continue reading →