Chris Cleary is a native of southeastern Pennsylvania, in which many of his stories are set. He is the author of four novels: The Vagaries of Butterflies, The Ring of Middletown, At the Brown Brink Eastward, and The Vitality of Illusion. His work has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review and other publications. His story "An Idea of the Journey" appears in the award-winning Everywhere Stories Vol. 2 from Press 53.
Try as he might, he could not recall Brian Geist. After all, nearly forty years had passed, and no shred of memory, not the slightest personal detail, survived. When Bo was a boy, his family had hosted American students through various exchange programs. Geist claimed to have stayed with them for only a couple…
Upon entering the bathroom of the bank, the third man yanked off his rubber Trump mask. Now that Jules finally could see his face, he realized that the man was, in fact, just a boy, seventeen, eighteen at most. Fear filled his watery eyes, obvious even in the reflection of the mirror across from…
