The Windex was disappearing at Hunky Mike’s Sports Pub. Gallons each week. Ever since the Skin-Melting Bacteria had flown in from Peru on the beaks of white pigeons, we were obligated to perform rigorous cleaning routines. Most people held their pints with latex-gloves, but the occasional Hunky Mike insisted on riding bareback. Click to read in Burningword Literary Journal >>
Mother
In 1992, the film Wayne’s World is released. The title character is played by comedian Mike Myers. The girl’s mother likes Mike Myers. She thinks he must be a nice Irish Catholic boy, although she does not say why she thinks this. The girl’s mother is Irish Catholic, and she loves Irish Catholic boys. She wants the girl to marry a nice Irish Catholic boy. She mentions this often. In the film, Myers’ love interest is played by Tia Carrere. Click to read in Bodega Magazine >>
Nefertiti
She told herself she wasn’t going to fall in love again. Not after Hubert. And Deborah. And Sweet Randy Jay.
In the wake of each, she had fought off the same bone-crushing sense of failure. It was her fault alone. No one else could be blamed, because there wasn’t anyone else. Click to read in Mala Leche >>
Driving Home with Invisible Todd
There were deer eyes everywhere. Staring out from the brush at the edge of the trees on the other side of the guardrail like white Christmas bulbs glinting in the dark. The night was so dark, I kept thinking maybe the headlights were broken.
We’d eaten some LSD from Burning Man the night before. Little red squares of perforated paper emblazoned with little pictures of burning men that some girl named Angel gave us for free because she said she liked our faces.
We got that a lot. We had good faces. Click to read in The Forge Literary Magazine >>
About
Elizabeth Mayer is a writer, mother, & service-industry worker living in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her previous work has appeared in Burningword Literary Journal, Mala Leche Feminist Zine, The Forge Literary Magazine, Bodega Magazine, CHEAP POP, Fiction Writers Review, CRAFT, & elsewhere. Her story “Mother” was nominated by the editors of Bodega Magazine for a Pushcart Prize. She holds an MFA in Fiction from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.