THE HALLMAN BY CORA CRUZ 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 63

No one talks about what it does to us, having to waste our lives like this, letting our time on this earth slip away for nothing, every day at work the same as the one before, watching ourselves never improving, never growing, not ever going anywhere. We’re supposed to only care about money. And it’s true, when you have money, you do get treated like you’re intelligent, even when you’re not. Most of the tenants in my building—it’s a luxury building in Manhattan, so you know they’re all at least billionaires—don’t have enough brains to fill my grandmother’s thimble, as she used to say. One tenant, some famous economist, wrote a book on poverty. It got us all talking, since some of us read it. Basically it said we’re poor because we’re lazy. I read that chapter. Of course, is what I told the guys. Why should we care about working, when to us, working means doing the same thing over and over and over again, getting paid the same too, which isn’t nearly enough to make it even slightly worth it? For that, better to sit around, than be somebody’s slave. 

FASHION COPYWRITER BY ELLEN BLOOMENSTEIN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 63

“Well, we’re paying more than $147,000 a year and you can’t accomplish the work? It’s cheaper for us to do it ourselves than to pay for your copy.” 

“I’m confused,” I said, “I don’t earn more than 30 dollars an hour.”

“Yes, that’s because your agency is pocketing all the money!” She looked furious, “And your clothing titles in the descriptions are too long!”

Antonia looked up at that point and said, “Yes, Ellen, I’ve told you that a million times.”

I had never heard this before now, “Oh,” I said, “I can make them shorter.”

THIS ABOVE ALL ELSE BY CORIE ROSEN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 63

This above all else: 

Write nothing pastoral. 

Do not celebrate the seasons.

Do not clasp hands with time. 

Do not write about love.  

(Whatever you do, please don’t do that.)

WHERE DID ALL THE DENTISTS GO? BY ROBERT EMMERS 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 63

A young woman leaned from an upstairs window while a gingham curtain billowed sadly around her, and from this it was clear she pined for someone who had left her. The pining woman especially intrigued Miss D. This was, I assumed at the time, because she had studied most of history’s strange disappearances such as those of William Cantelo, Wallace Fard Muhammad, Joan Risch, Ambrose Bierce, and Cotah Ramaswami. And, as she pointed out, those are just the ones we hear about because they are famous. There are many, many more. It is possible, she added, that this phenomenon has something to do with parallel universes.

THE HUNTER BY MARILEE DAHLMAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 63

“Hey, man,” Jack said softly. He felt an instant wave of affection that made him almost giddy. Surely they must have known each other in some past life, or were destined to meet in some future life. He unclipped the flashlight from his belt and pointed the beam.

The hunter had that same surprising smallness that all prehistoric people had. He lay on his side, face tilted down, much closer to the edge than Caitlyn had said.

DOUG’S INTERNAL HEALTH BY JAY BERMAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 63 IMAGE BY KEITH LUKE

Doug overlooked just one thing: Mickey had mild dyslexia. You’d never know it, but it slowed his reading speed and forced him to concentrate on reading and writing more than most people. When the revised website went online Mickey inadvertently changed Doug’s Internal Health to God’s Eternal Health, and Doug didn’t notice.

Get the mag.

Get the mag.

​

34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 61

IMAGES BY KEVIN MORRIS, KORYO SONG OF CHICAGO BY SHARON BENTLEY VIRGO, YOUR BODY (MOST LIKELY) EXISTS IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE BY KATHLEEN LEVITT, ANGEL LOVE BY BEN HARDWELL, THE OTHER VEGAN IN THE ROOM BY ARIEZRA ROBINSON, BERTRAND RUSSELL AND MY SUMMER IN THE SUN BY STEVEN MCBREARTY, I DON’T KNOW WHAT FOREVER MEANS BY ROBERT EARLE.