Cruel Coffee

Molly Hayman UW Hospital 2025 Short story   His laughter rang in her ears. She’d heard that laugh so many times throughout their years together and always thought of it as his special laugh. His real laugh. The sound he made when he thought something was actually funny. This time though, she was fairly certain…

Black & Red

Iris Kamenev, MD UW Hospital 2023 Short story   “You cannot take the spirituality out of medicine,” Bright, our driver and a local pastor, tells me in his pleasantly thick accent as the car jolts over the unpaved road on the way to the hospital. The Christian radio station is playing a song with only…

Let’s Go Together

Nicholas Gallo, MD UW Hospital, Internal Medicine 2024 Short story   “Nick, get out of the car.” “No!” “Nick, you have to get out of the car.” “No. No. No. You can’t make me. I don’t want to go!” My dad crossed his arms, stepped back, and watched as I entangled my body within the…

Grief’s Ghost

Edith-Marie Green School of Medicine and Public Health, Population Health Sciences 2023 Short story   The Charlotte Wymond Memorial Library closes, on most nights, promptly at eight. Any students still browsing the stacks are ushered out, the random senior napping on the couch woken up, last check-outs completed, and research paused for as long as…

The Chef’s Lament

David van den Brandt School of Nursing 2023 Short story   Turning to the right, turning to the left, over to his back, onto his chest, he could not find a comfortable position because it was one of those nights when the crickets were not soothing, the stars were too bright, the moon too ominous,…

The Siren

Ariel Niforatos School of Medicine and Public Health 2021 Short story   She walks in endless fields of sorrow in a world she cannot name and through streets that end without destinations. She dances through lonely alleys and backstreets with only the wind pushing her forward and blowing through her hair with an illusion of…

In Sickness and In Health

Madison Kranz School of Nursing 2021 Prose/flash fiction   He gently places the dish towel over the broken glass, trying not to cut himself. He knows the small fragments will scratch their new table, but that’s the last thing on his mind. She sits on a stool at the breakfast bar, knees pulled to her…