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Anne Weisgerber discusses and reads her flash fiction piece She Curled Tight for Long Exposure Magazine.

For more flash fiction like this, purchase Issue 4 of Long Exposure Magazine here.

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Although they lived on a soft and quiet cul-de-sac, inside oily blooms of rubbery mold sprouted in standing coffee, powdery spores spawned on fruit, and Mariana often scouted exits when Kurt approached. He spoke charismatically, with palms open and outward, his whole body unhinged, an open flower.

***

Mariana clanged and bashed dishes out of and into the Whirlpool, as Kurt steered round like a ragged war ship.   “Every iPhone is plastic junk.   Enormous trash that will drag you down like an anchor.” Kurt crushed a can of Code Red for emphasis, and his lips parted when finished.   His thumb felt the sharp seams, the other hand stroked his forearm, wishing it were hers.   He, a starved bottlenose pinging the depths, longed for her signal.

***

Detachment swirled around Mariana, pearl in palm, like a clock, like a gif animation whose arrows followed her brain’s sensual contours.   She put Kotex tampon tubes on her fingertips and continued circling and swiping.

***

“This is the perversion of data that drips off you like fishing lines. Look at you.” His voice cracked as he leaned closer, close enough to touch. “Queen of nothing and no one.” He threw the can away for emphasis.

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She swiveled from him, reflexively opened her WayPilot app and whoompfh, disappeared; Kurt snarled like a choked fish.   All that was left were bubbles from her seltzer bottle.

***

Kurt held his gaze there, memorizing her coordinates.   His eyes shone and his chin lifted; Kurt stroked against the grain of his razor stubble.   He dragged his own fingernails down his neck, his love the size of Texas. He watched her screen populate with things she liked. To him, these were old tires, BIC lighters, filthy toothbrushes. Each floated separately in the bathymetry of their marriage.

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A.E. Weisgerber has recent fiction in Shotgun Honey, SmokeLong Quarterly, Entropy Magazine, New South, and her story “Sleeping Beauty: Markson Fangirl” is a Best Small Fictions 2016 Finalist. She assistant edits fiction at Pithead Chapel, and reviews for Change Seven Magazine.  While writing her first novel, she keeps things up to date at anneweisgerber.com

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