Excerpt

The First Time I Saw Hope. AI-Generated.
The first time I saw hope, it did not arrive like a sunrise. There was no dramatic moment, no music swelling in the background, no sudden miracle.
By Peter2 days ago in Fiction
The Moment I Stopped Feeling Powerless. AI-Generated.
The morning I stopped feeling powerless began like every other morning in those years — with the sound of my alarm clock buzzing beside a bed that felt heavier than it should.
By Peter2 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicle Pt 10.
Manhattan, the commercial heart of New York City, had always pulsed with motion. Now it felt like a drained reservoir—cracked, hollow, emptied of life. Traffic lights changed for no one. Storefronts were shuttered. Office towers stood like abandoned fortresses.
By Peter3 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicle Pt 9.
From the first reports of the outbreak through mid-February, I followed the news obsessively. I tracked case numbers across continents, studied infection curves, and read late into the night, afraid that missing a single update would leave me unprepared.
By Peter3 days ago in Fiction
Discover Handpicked Tales You’ll Love Every Day
What if a single story you read today quietly stayed with you for the rest of your life? Not because it was famous. Not because everyone was talking about it.
By imtiazalam3 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicle Pt 8.
In early March, New York City confirmed its first case of COVID-19: a middle-aged partner at a Midtown Manhattan law firm. Within days, family members, friends, and colleagues who had been in close contact with him also tested positive. Some had mild symptoms. Others became critically ill. The attorney himself deteriorated so quickly that he was placed on a ventilator and admitted to intensive care.
By Peter4 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicle Pt 7.
During the stay-at-home order, the subway never stopped running. It roared through tunnels with tireless persistence, as if driven by a quiet sense of duty—to keep the city alive while an invisible enemy stalked its people. In its motion, there was something almost sacrificial. The trains carried not only passengers, but also the fragile belief that New York would endure.
By Peter4 days ago in Fiction
Something is Beginning, I think
Marla gazed off into the distance. She wasn't really seeing what was in front of her. The rolling hills covered in wheat that shifted and swayed in the noon day sun were a haze of blue and gold and white, without definition. Her thoughts jumbled and turned, shifting her current dilemma in different ways, seeing if, perhaps, a different angle might give her an alternate solution or answer.
By Eda Marie5 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicle
When Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all non-essential businesses in New York State to shut down, Chinatown changed almost overnight.
By Peter5 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicle
By late March of the Year of the Rat, time itself seemed to slow under the weight of the virus. Days stretched endlessly, as if the calendar had lost its urgency. Each morning looked almost identical to the one before it. The same gray sky over Manhattan. The same cautious silence on the streets below our apartment window.
By Peter5 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicle
In late March, after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued the stay-at-home order, all workers in non-essential industries were required to remain at home. The goal was clear: protect lives, slow the rising curve of infections, and relieve the growing panic that had gripped New Yorkers.
By Peter6 days ago in Fiction
City of plague:A new Yorker’s pandemic chronicl
On March 1, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New York City was announced. The patient was a middle-aged lawyer working in a Midtown Manhattan law firm. His condition was already severe when he was diagnosed, and he was immediately hospitalized and placed in isolation.
By Peter6 days ago in Fiction