Category: Short Story
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Adnan, Unredacted: The View from This Table
A green hat, a black fur coat, long black boots. She sits by the window, stirring her coffee without drinking it. A man in a puffy red jacket sits next to her. A third joins them a moment later, tugging off a gray scarf and carrying a large gift bag. The man in the scarf…
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Adnan, Unredacted: On Sounding Normal in Public
Theory about voice changing.Can a person speak in different voices?Is it normal to talk in two different voices? This was my search history for the day. I only noticed it later, when I got home and sat on my bed, tapping through Instagram, then WhatsApp, then a half-open browser tab I didn’t remember opening, while…
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Six-Hour Guard Shift on the Northeastern Point of the Emile Helou Security Complex
There’s always something different at the start of a new day; the air shifts and time resets. The stubborn illusion of change replays the same tune with a slight difference in the arrangement onstage. I got the good, isolated guarding point – the north-eastern corner of the complex, next to the intersection on the inner…
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Adnan, Unredacted: A year in Reviews, From the Basement Office
Today, dear reader, I think it’s time to lift the curtain a little and let you in on a part of my life I usually keep to myself. You’re probably wondering: “What does Adnan even do all day?” Well, today’s your lucky day, because it’s the most hectic time of the year – the one…
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Adnan, Unredacted: Adnan’s Guide to Overhearing a Breakdown, Politely
I swear I didn’t mean to be this curious. But here I am, muting my TV so I can listen to someone’s sobbing. It started innocently, I swear. I was just about to take my after-work nap when I heard someone’s voice crack into tears. You know that sound? The one that comes right before…
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Adnan, Unredacted: Local Man Finds Sock, Feels Nothing
“Breaking news!!! I just lost a sock.” My mind kept repeating as I searched the whole house – under the bed, behind the washing machine. Even in places that made no sense: the freezer, the cabinet under the sink, the bookshelf in the living room. Instead of the sock, all I managed to find was…
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A Visit To Bjerrin
Kamil had just arrived at Bjerrin, a 100-year-old abandoned village in the Jbeil district of Lebanon, nestled in a rugged valley surrounded by the majestic Mount Lebanon. An old local man named Jalal, who had agreed to help him discover Bjerrin and its ruins, was waiting at the entrance. After they greeted each other, they…
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Adnan, Unredacted: The Idiot Behind This
I’ve been trying to write lists to control my thoughts: 1. Drink water. 2. Pay rent. 3. Make enough money to pay rent? 4. Do not collapse. But these lists collapse before I do. I’ve been writing for two hours, hoping you’ll read till the very last word without getting bored or wondering who the…
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Smoke on a Lightbulb
The light-bulb outside my bedroom door was flickering when I first moved in. All the rest were fine, so I simply avoided it. I reasoned that at some point or other it would die out, then I would be in partial darkness for a few days until I managed to convince myself to change it,…
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Fifteen Years Later
Summer had just ended, and it was time to bring out my winter clothes. I had so much work to do – sorting out what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to donate, clearing the layers of accumulated dust, organizing the closets. I started by grabbing some coats, one of which I used…