Story Excerpts

The Tattenhall Tontine
by Marilyn Todd

The Beatles were belting through the speakers loud enough to bend the walls, urging everyone to get back to where they once belonged. Tony didn’t hear. He didn’t notice groovy girls wafting around with false eyelashes longer than their miniskirts, much less care that Judy Garland had just died. His focus was on the heap of pound notes on the table, and the three eights, the king, and the six in his hand. READ MORE

Not the Usual Boy
by Rob Osler

Most days, my gender fluidity creates little kerfuffle, aside from the pressure I put on myself when dressing as a woman and wanting to pull together a smart ensemble before leaving the house. One event, however, is an unfailing exception. The minor fuss begins every March at the huge professional tennis tournament that lights up the Palm Springs area, where I have served as a volunteer for the past dozen years. Although all tournament staff wear more or less the same outfit—polo shirt and trousers—the tailoring is different for women and men, and I’d rather wear pantyhose on a desert hike than suffer the humiliating cut of a men’s pair of thirty-eight-inch-waisted chinos. READ MORE