Shelley’s wearing her crossword puzzle face and I’m dying to help but no good at puzzles. I eye my folded wings by the door next to the flamingo umbrellas that are looking out the window, thinking I need to go. It’s been a long time since rain. Even wind has stayed away. Now the question that hangs in the air, the question that has always hung in the air between us, is whether looking at the answer key on page 46 is cheating or researching or just a little mother’s helper to get unstuck on a stalled afternoon. Etta James, I say as if that might be the answer she’s looking for. Alexa starts playing and Etta’s voice fills the room. And I’m not going anywhere as my folded wings in need of dusting remind me, as Shelley taps her pencil and turns to page 46, because I’m already gone, already soaring as I listen to jazz and reach for my pen and pad.

Guy Biederman

is the author of seven books, including Here’s Where We Get Off (Blue Light Press, 2026); Translated from the Original: One-Inch Punch Fiction (Nomadic Press, 2022) and Nova Nights (Nomadic Press, 2021), both of which were acquired by Black Lawrence Press in June 2023; Edible Grace (KYSO Flash Press, 2019); and Soundings & Fathoms (Finishing Line Press).

His stories have appeared in many journals such as Bull; Carve; The Disappointed Housewife; The Ekphrastic Review; Exposition Review (where he was twice a Flash 405 winner); Flash Frontier; Flashback Fiction; great weather for Media; KYSO Flash; MacQueen’s Quinterly; and Riddled with Arrows. His story “Coyotes, Pelicans, & Prisoners” appears in Best Microfiction 2024 (nominated by Six Sentences), and his story “Rosetta Post-Its” is included in Best Microfiction 2025 (nominated by New Flash Fiction Review). His work has received a Publisher’s Choice Award and an Editor’s Choice Award, and has been nominated for Best of The Net.

A former Peace Corps volunteer, gardener, and college creative-writing instructor, Guy lives on a houseboat with his wife, and walks the planks daily.

Author’s website: https://www.guybiederman.com/

Author’s blog: This Day Afloat: Reflections of Life on the Water

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Meow of Now, a tribute to Pierre, beloved companion and writing buddy; in Issue 23 of MacQueen’s Quinterly aka MacQ (April 2024)

⚡ Precious Artifact Repairs, microfiction by Guy Biederman in MacQ-22 (February 2024); nominated by MacQ for Best Microfiction 2025

⚡ Quite, a prose poem by Biederman selected as winner of the “Triple-Q” Writing Challenge in Issue 11 of MacQ (January 2022); to hear him read this piece, see Recordings at his website.

⚡ Edible Grace: An e-Collection of 12 Micro-Prose in MacQ’s predecessor, KYSO Flash (Issue 12, Summer 2019); click on Next Page at bottom left of each piece to access the next one.

Edible Grace is also available in print and offers bonus content, including six additional micro-prose and five more photographs by the author, plus a pen-and-ink drawing by Tula Biederman.

⚡ The Lion Has Lost His Roar, a tribute to Little Bud (aka Cap’n Orange), from the Edible Grace e-collection described above