It's a sunny Sunday afternoon —celebratory day: the sun hadn't visited your city's sky in ages— and you're out in the flea market. Browsing the offerings among the throng of people: old things ... [+]
Stephen Hundley's story, "The Tiger Talk," is in Short Circuit #03, Short Édition's quarterly review. Stephen is the author of The Aliens Will Come to Georgia First (University of North Georgia Press, 2021).
Royals Primary has the second grade corralled into the gym. "What you want to do," I tell the kids, "is draw a mask that looks a lot like your face. As close as you can get it, except we're going to make the eyes extra big. Big white eyes. Surprised, like." I'm on a short stage in front of a microphone, marking a face onto a paper plate, while Sid and the school principal whisper and elbow each other behind me. We're in our old zoo uniforms. Khaki on khaki with a tiger head stitched onto the pocket. We haven't worked at the zoo in years, but the principal insisted. "We want you to look like ex