Complicit by Gay Degani art by Gay Degani The front door slams. Walls shake. A vase of tasseled wheat slides through my hands onto the kitchen floor. Glass shards lie among stalks as late afternoon sun spills gold through gold and I hear his boots in the hall. A shock of hot wind rattles the screen of the open back door. I glance out. The barn isn't far, a haven if I would only move. But I don't. I wait. He bursts in, shirt flaked with grime, jeans mud-glazed. He stops when he sees me. Between us, a twist of pleasure, eyes locked, breath vanished. I step toward him in bare feet, feel the bite of glass, reach up to place a hand on his cheek. "You're here," he says. "Where would I go?" "I didn't want you here. Not for this." He loops me with thick arms, pulls me close, my ear pressed hard against his farmer's sweat. We stand like vine and tree till he leans down and puts his lips to mine. When the world comes back, he says, "Where is he?" If I'd gone to the barn to hide or if I'd left in the wagon as we'd planned, I would not be here to say these words, but I am. "In the field by the creek." He sets me on a kitchen stool. "Stay." At the door he turns back, his mouth grim. Linoleum, my toe, the rod my feet rest on, smeared with blood. The quiet slap of the screen door. An owl's hoot from the nearby copse. I wait in a warm shaft of light, hands in my lap, until I hear a quick loud crack from the north where my husband rides his tractor bare-headed through the wheat. All content in SmokeLong Quarterly copyright 2003-2012 by its authors. Gay Degani has published in journals and anthologies including The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008. Her stories online can be read at The Battered Suitcase, Night Train, Every Day Fiction, 10Flash, 3 A.M. Magazine, Tattoo Highway, Salt River Review, Paradigm Journal, and Flash Fiction Online. She is the editor of EDF's Flash Fiction Chronicles. Her personal blog can be found at http://wordsinplace.blogspot.com/. Read the interview. Issue Twenty-Eight (July 25, 2010): Young Waitresses by Steve Almond «» Frank by Matt Baker «» The Life and Times of Dmitri Kulikov by Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf «» Scapegoat by Thomas Cooper «» What You Could Catch Me Bumping by Craig Davis «» Complicit by Gay Degani «» What You See When You Think of Home by John Mark DeMoss «» In the Attic by Murray Dunlap «» A Flower Thing by Jen Gann «» Seahorse Sex by Molly Giles «» Gertie by Kyle Hemmings «» Vertigo by Ann Hillesland «» Rock by Stephanie Johnson «» A Shot of Whatever by David LaBounty «» Palo Alto by Paul Lisicky «» The Lake House by Michelle McMahon «» Hell Is a Headline by Emily McPhillips «» How I Liked the Avocados by Wendy Oleson «» Regrets by Bridget Pelkie «» What Passes for Normal by Michelle Reale «» Avalanche by Joseph Scapellato «» Last Seen Leaving by Laura Ellen Scott «» Explicable by Sabrina Stoessinger «» A Fistful of Buttercups by Nancy Stebbins «» My Maggie by Eugenia F. Tsutsumi «» The Ghost by Russell Whitaker «» The Strain of Collusion by xTx «» Interviews: Steve Almond «» Matt Baker «» Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf «» Thomas Cooper «» Craig Davis «» Gay Degani «» John Mark DeMoss «» Murray Dunlap «» Jen Gann «» Molly Giles «» Kyle Hemmings «» Ann Hillesland «» Stephanie Johnson «» David LaBounty «» Michelle McMahon «» Emily McPhillips «» Wendy Oleson «» Bridget Pelkie «» Michelle Reale «» Joseph Scapellato «» Laura Ellen Scott «» Nancy Stebbins «» Sabrina Stoessinger «» Eugenia F. Tsutsumi «» xTx «» Cover Art "Wall Street Must Be Tripping" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor Interested in subscribing to SmokeLong's weekly newsletter? Click here. An email should be created. Send it as is, and you'll be subscribed. If the link does not work for you, send an email to imailsrv@smokelong.com with Subscribe slq-info in the body of the email (no subject is necessary). You'll receive updates detailing the release of new issues, new reading periods, contests, etc. We do not make our mail list available to anyone else.