By J.S. O'Keefe
The roses are browning at the edges. The stems must've been cut too long. They smell like the dark corner of the pantry.
You wash your hands. Soap, rinse, towel. Again: soap, rinse, towel. Something was supposed to happen and didn't. Or you missed a step and everything skidded off that. You replay the last hour to find the exact moment it all came apart.
Your lips count: one, two, three. Counting is easier than deciding. Four, five, six. Your lost cat finds her way home, starved and dazed. Whose neglect?
How many times have you been almost right? The door nearly closed, the cup almost full, the sentence about to mean something before it veers off. Almost right is a cliff edge you've stood on most of your life.
Memory cracks but doesn't break. Paper piles grow. You consider lists, scribble checkmarks, initials on pages. Blank spaces everywhere. You rewrite an entire paragraph then regret it; the original was better. You stop. Did you leave the stove on?
The room has morphed. The frame goes crooked. You straighten it, step back, check again. Almost right is not wrong, only unfinished. Cacophony outside. Inside, the work needs more work. You pause. You think, neglect? You check. It's good. Check again.
Now stopping doesn't feel like failure. The frame stays crooked; you let it. Children come home. Street noise down to clickety clack. Inside, the work's done. The room goes half-asleep. You pause. You check. You tell yourself it's enough.
For a moment, you believe it.
Then you go back on.
About the Author
J.S. O’Keefe is a trilingual translator and writer.
He has published over 500 short stories, creative essays and poems in print and online literary journals.
You can find out more at his website: <https://www.szjohnny.net/>
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Tara Campbell is an award-winning writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse, and graduate of American University's MFA in Creative Writing.
Geraldine Borella writes fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her work has been published by Deadset Press, IFWG Publishing, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge, AHWA/Midnight Echo, Antipodean SF, Shacklebound Books, Black Ink Fiction, Paramour Ink Fiction, House of Loki and Raven & Drake
Tom Wrosch is a retired policy analyst with the State of Oregon, and resides with his wife in Salem.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Merri Andrew writes poetry and short fiction, some of which has appeared in Cordite, Be:longing, Baby Teeth and Islet, among other places.
Brian Biswas lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
My time at Nambucca Valley Community Radio began back in 2016 after moving into the area from Sydney.
James Walton was a librarian, a farm labourer, and mostly a public sector union official.
Emma Louise Gill (she/her) is a British-Australian spec fic writer and consumer of vast amounts of coffee. Brought up on a diet of English lit, she rebelled and now spends her time writing explosive space opera and other fantastical things in
Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.