The Back of the Box
by Rachel Ann Brickner
I almost became a pop star from the back of a cereal box. It was 1998. I was twelve. Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” was at the top of the charts and her bare belly covered the United States. Every boy wanted her. Every girl wanted to be her. It was a difficult time for us all.
Disappear by Numbers by Rachel Ann Brickner Blood ran across the half-moon of the dog’s neck, the blade sunk halfway through flesh just deep enough for the knife to stand straight through the hide as if being held by an invisible hand. How the little heart must have beat in the chaos. Did the dog suffer? That’s what the detective wanted to know. And how could such suffering be measured?