"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."  

               -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pike Magazine online offers free serialized novels and short stories from the best Twin Cities fiction writers willing to tender their words without charge.

Simply click on the links provided, download, print if you wish, and take the best in free fiction with you on the bus, to bed, or to read in the café of your local boxy, leviathan book retailer. 

PIKE WRITERS

Jason Kerzinski

Jason Kerzinski is a blistering and succinct short story writer from Chicago. He has been published in several lit mags and, admittedly, is one of few words. "Shorter the better I say," Kerzinski told Pike. We'll take his advice and leave you to the art.

Humanitarian

 Cholera  is something I have never had or will probably ever have.  If I stumble across a genie, I will ask for cholera and a red Toyota Prius. I will be living the green life. I wish to have cholera for six hours. That's a lot of diarrhea. The bacteria has been known to kill within twenty hours. Six hours seems sufficient. I will be the only human in the States to have contracted cholera. I will call the newspapers. Scientists will prod at me while I sit on the toilet. I will be listed in Wikipedia. A happy day. A happy day, indeed. Six hours of diarrhea. Will my cheeks have sores? Will my genitals be infected from the backsplash? How much toilet paper will I need? Will the genie run to the store if I run out? She'd better not by the cheap shit. I will get a rash. It will be  purple, blue, orange, and yellow. Will the scientists want stool samples? The genie had better get the good stuff. Will my ass fall asleep? Will the genie rub my feet when they become numb? Take care of me, genie. I will buy you dinner. I will be your husband. I will clean your bottle with Windex. I will vacuum the floors and do the dishes. I will make sweet love to you. Rub my feet for the next six hours. On second thought, I will pass on cholera. I would not feel right about having a genie smell feces for six hours. I had heard genies have heightened senses. Kerzinksi is a humanitarian.