Unlikely 2.0


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Chapters Twenty-Three through Twenty-Five of sLAsH by Bill Berry
Mieke's Ladder: Gabriel Ricard reviews the book and interviews author A. R. Lamb
Unlikely's Musical Year-End Review
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Beside the Grave Hole where We Laughed in the Sand: Poetry by Goitsione Mogomotsi Mokou
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An Excerpt from Love Spell by Marie Kazalia


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The Plague Director
by Kevin Griffith

I've always hated irony.

So when I received the call that it was raining SUVs over Waterloo, Iowa; Lima, Ohio; and Flint, Michigan, I didn't know where to start. Irony #1: I had long complained to my wife, Gina, that my position as Deputy Assistant Director of FEMA, Biblical Catastrophe Division was a completely bogus position with no real responsibility. But now it had responsibility. Mucho responsibility. Irony #2: That it was literally raining SUVs over cities consistently listed among the top twenty in the nation in per capita ownership of vehicles with the highest carbon emissions is a punishment befitting anything Dante could have dreamed up. Irony #3: My name is Moses. First and last. "Moses Moses." Ha ha, Mom and Dad, I am still yucking it up.

Here's how the whole SUV thing panned out: At 6:53 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, my assistant, Dolores, called my home with the news. Dolores is normally a very calm persona, a perky little woman of Asian descent who knows the ropes and navigates problems with the steadiness of a Volga boatman. But that morning, her voice was panicked and unsure.

"Moses?"

"Yeah?"

"It's raining SUVs."

"Yeah, I know, they're everywhere. And no one will take one off your hands, you know, what with gas being so high."

"No, Moses. They are falling from the sky in Iowa. In Ohio. In Michigan. I mean, big bad Explorers, Expeditions, Yukons, Grizzlies, whatever the hell they are called, smashing right through people's roofs, crushing kids to jelly as they sleep peacefully under their comforters. It's horrible."

"No shit?"

"Yes, shit. Big shit. The president is calling a press conference in twenty minutes and they're going to go to a live feed from our office. You need to shave, shit, and shine

pronto, Mr. Deputy Assistant Director. And have some Bible verses ready, because America will be expecting an explanation. And don't just blame it all on the gays."

"So there's like SUVs falling from the sky?"

"Just be here." Dolores hung up. And then things happened very quickly indeed.

Continued...