Ivy Jong

Joined December 2021

6 stories

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Stories (6)

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The Snows of Serein
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. On the surface of the planet on which the survey team now stood, all sound was completely swallowed, absorbed by the snow-like substance that covered its surface in drifts and danced through the air in flakes of shimmering white. Vintner squinted through the reflective lenses of the goggles that protected her eyes against snow blindness. She had never seen anything like this— Shining motes floating softly all around, the particles sending off light like minuscule stars, or delicate shavings of diamond dust. They could not be true snow or ice, not being composed of water, and they were not cold in temperature at all. They were a phenomenon unique to this planet, a fact that struck a spark of excitement in Vintner, the team’s environmental researcher.
By Ivy Jong3 years ago in Fiction
Carnivorous Species of the American Southwest
In this small town, there are barns laced like gingerbread houses in snow seasons. The fairy lights that wreathe the porches dance like fireflies in the evenings. Clean, crisp, white picket fences protect cellars filled with bottles of dandelion wine, glowing like summer. There are broken bottles littering the poor parts of town, shards glittering on the overgrown sidewalk. The barbed wire fences are molding with rust. There are people here with skin spun like sugar, a few sooty dark like ash. The first kind blaze down the highway after a full bottle of whiskey. The second get pulled over for going five above on a low-traffic night, far out from anything, where patrolmen are starving from lack of fun and no one needs to know.
By Ivy Jong4 years ago in Fiction
Apple of Discord
The brother was born on Friday the thirteenth, six minutes after midnight struck. His sister had arrived half an hour earlier, when it was still Thursday the twelfth, an incredibly beautiful, healthy baby, on the clear night of what had been the sunniest day of the year. As soon as he popped out, however, a pucker-faced runt who began wailing as soon as he hit air, the starry sky clouded over, sheets of rain began assaulting the hospital roof, bringing the gutter down with an awful crash, and thunder boomed ominously in the distance, starting a forest fire up on the mountains.
By Ivy Jong4 years ago in Fiction
Never Enough Gasoline
I grew up in the city, cradled in concrete, smog, and grime. The front yards, if there were any, were filled with dry, dead grass so sharp and stiff it hurt to touch, the color of a tea stain at the bottom of the cup. When I was young, I assumed that the images on postcards—canyons striated like sunsets, clear-watered rivers spilling white foam over moss-furred stones—were edited to look that beautiful.
By Ivy Jong4 years ago in Fiction
First of the Slut-Shamed: A Hymn for Helen of Troy
Hello, Helen. Helen Harlot, Helen Home-Wrecker, Helen Whore. Most beautiful woman in the world, hatched from a swan’s egg, product of yet another rape perpetrated by your divine slut of a father, the “omnipotent” thunderer. His many bedfellows tell a different story.
By Ivy Jong4 years ago in Fiction
Speaking Up For My Silenced Self. Top Story - December 2021.
In my small-town, Midwestern high school, my film teacher makes a homophobic joke about my project. The principal is sitting in on class today. Maybe my teacher feels the breath on the back of his neck. Maybe he doesn’t think about it at all.
By Ivy Jong4 years ago in Motivation