THE ANGEL OF FUGUE

BY ANDRES KAHAR
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Fugue
Noun 1. Fugue - dissociative disorder in which a person forgets who they are and leaves home to creates a new life; during the fugue there is no memory of the former life; after recovering there is no memory of events during the dissociative state
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Underemployment was a nasty, yet increasingly familiar, state of being for his generation of university-educated talent. Well, that's what Guy Burgess kept telling himself.

Guy, you see, was trained as a journalist. Guy even worked as a journalist. But, one barely remembered chain of events later, Guy ended up on the fringes, working in a call centre.

It was many years later, I was around 40 now and I was relaxing on my back porch and musing on the past. The band had run it's course with some success but we were ahead of our time, misunderstood. As things usually go, bands that followed us, that copied our style made all the money. They looked better, had better management, had vocal coaches and hairdressers and fitness coaches and image coaches. Some of the creeps even went to college to learn how to be a rock star. It was laughable how they came on all tough but were some of the most pampered individuals on the planet. The people wanted lies, the people wanted things packaged in something simple they could understand. And that's what they bought. But I couldn't complain, we had a good 8 year run, made a little money before the usual things happened; the power struggles, ego-trips and substance abuse. I had to walk away from it all before I Cobain'd out.

The hair around my nipples has grown longer. It's not something that one would notice. Hell, I didn't even notice until one late summer day - actually, an early fall day in Southern California where we regularly push the summers well into October and on into December if we're lucky - while smoking a cigarette and reading the latest edition of "Modern Painters" I looked down across my bare chest at hairs that had begun to grey and noticed a lengthy curl about my left nipple. Fortunately, the right nipple had equal growth so I did not look unbalanced in any way but the long hairs and the greying and the fact that I could repose on a Thursday late-summer morning and consider this newly discovered arrangement satisfied me in a very adult way.

Stew and Gus were discussing the forces of good and evil. The two men had been friends for years. They lived many miles apart, but they corresponded almost daily by e-mail.

Stew believed in heaven and hell, and Gus professed not to believe in anything. Gus would be the first to admit, however, that he was familiar with the dark side.

"I believe in gods, devils, demons--the whole shebang," Stew wrote. "It's the only thing that explains suffering. Good and Evil exist side by side, and you can't blame Evil on God. Or use it as evidence that there is no God. He does what he can."

a short story by Dina Di Maio
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There is a part of Barrow Street where the road not so much forks as curves and joins with another. At this juncture, there is a restaurant, a quaint, bricked place. Inside, there is a glow from candles and dim lights. There is noise of chatter. The restaurant is like that of an inn hidden in a cozy town in Europe. A small theater is a few doors away. Gorgeous homes flaunt impossible remodeled kitchens through open windows. This corner does not feel like New York and that is why I come here when I need to think. My mother once told me that when she was a child, she used to look through the windows of a restaurant on this street when she visited her aunt. I am almost positive it was not this restaurant but I understand the feeling she described to me as I pass this spot now. It is the feeling that reminds me that I am still in New York and I am curled within one of its secret spots.

a fiction short by Scott Neumyer
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"You want to shoot some pool?" she asks as we walk past the beach, our arms brushing back and forth on the sides of our legs, the salty ocean breeze hanging over us like a thick fog. We're coming up to the only bar in town. Her sister and brother-in-law have asked us to shoot a few racks before heading back to the house. I'm full of ice cream and not sure I can handle much more than a few minutes.

"I think I'm going to head back," I tell her. "I've had it. I need to close my eyes for a few." I grab her hand, bring it to my mouth, and kiss it quickly. Her fingers are sticky from the ice cream and it reminds me of when I was younger and more willing to shoot a few racks. "You go ahead. I'll see you back at the house later, okay?"

a fiction short by Pasha Malla
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Rm #312 - Ludwig Van Beethoven
Mr. Beethoven checked in with only one piece of luggage, a leather- bound valise. He failed to tip either the doorman, or the bell boy. In the elevator he broke wind and blamed it on a child.

During his two-night stay, Mr. Beethoven amassed a substantial bill viewing pornographic films on pay-per-view television. Evidence of semen was found in the bedsheets, wastebasket, shower and bathroom sink. Upon departure he was heard to refer to the hotel as a "shithole" and refused to offer identification while paying by personal cheque.