Sugar by Claudia Smith art by Robinson Accola The day is baby blue, scattered with frilly clouds. A happy sky, my mother says as we wait for a bus. I suck Minute Maid lemonade through a candy-cane straw. We have change. My mother gathers coins from behind sofa cushions and jars and puts them in a tarnished ashtray she calls the collection plate. I am wearing a frilly dress, and I know she doesn't approve but when she says I can wear what I want I pick the church dresses my grandmother sends. This one is pale pink with yellow ribbons, with curls and swirls like a candy Easter egg. "Be mindful," she says because when I hop up my lace panties show. I remember the waiting more than the arrivals. She is stern and beautiful, with hair like dark chocolate caught up in the back. In the laundromat, we exchange dirty coins for clean dollars. The money machine sloshes the change inside. My brother calls it a giant robot. A giant robot keeps watch outside my son's window. He says the giant robot eats cactus, cars, telephone wire. Monsters sing and have no claws. We spray glitter water over the doorway, chasing them away. In the morning, I will take him for frilly cupcakes and coffee at the Whole Foods, we'll watch the chocolate fountain swirls. Once, we ran out of money before a paycheck when he needed medicine. It was only the one time. My husband called his mother, she wired us money from Western Union. But she sent more than we asked for, and when he filled out the incorrect amount, the woman at the register wouldn't give it to him. I wouldn't go inside. "Jesus Christ," I said. "Do you think I have to go in there with our sick baby and beg her? Is that what we have to do? I am not my mother," I told him. "Well, I guess I am my mother. I guess sometimes I am." "I can't go in there. You go in there. I can't go in there." "No," he said and he went back, and when he was inside the grocery store I sang a song about a goat who trots to a market and brings back raisins and almonds. When he came back, he had the money. Cash flow, floating checks, money moves like water, buoys promises. The money machine spits. "Mommy, jingle bells!" my son says. He is an enthusiastic person. He's only two, so I expect this is not unusual. "We're going to have cupcakes," I tell him. "Oh, boy! I go see a chocolate fountain," he says. "Yes," I say, "Oh boy!" "I have chocolate fingers," he says. "We taking the bus!" Those cupcakes are the fanciest I've seen, moving behind a glass door. The chef is crisp, white, starched. He has a moustache. I will pick a lemon cake for myself, lemon with sprinkles. My son can choose from any of them, I say. His forehead wrinkles. "I thinking," he says. There's a football, a hamburger, a complicated flower, an Easter Egg. "This one!" he says, pointing, "No, no, this! No, this one." All content in SmokeLong Quarterly copyright 2003-2008 by its authors.
	Claudia Smith's collection, The Sky Is A Well, was featured in Powell's Daily Dose and recently received the New England Bookbuilder's Award. The collection sold out, but was reprinted as part of A Peculiar Feeling Of Restlessness, Four Chapbooks By Four Women, available from Rose Metal Press. Claudia's work has appeared in several literary magazines and anthologies, including W.W. Norton's The New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories From America And Beyond, Sou'wester, Redivider, and So New Media's Consumed: Women on Excess. She has twice been nominated for the Pushcart. More about Claudia and her work can be found at www.claudiaweb.net. Read the interview. Robinson Accola creates artwork for SmokeLong Quarterly on an as-needed basis.
	Issue Twenty-One (June 15, 2008): Paper Mouse by Bob Arter «» The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines by Matt Bell «» The Bone Orchard by Randall Brown «» Disease Relics by Blake Butler «» We Decided to Make Porn by Brian Allen Carr «» The Baby Drop-Off by Natascia Casey-Dean «» The Cougar by Dave Clapper «» Anointed by Myfanwy Collins «» Sister Earth by John Colvin «» Soap by Katrina Denza «» The Interpretation of Light by Murray Dunlap «» The Hole by Ashley Farmer «» Repair Man by Kathy Fish «» In the Kitchen She Wakes by Stefanie Freele «» American Gothic by Scott Garson «» Lobster Girl by Alicia Gifford «» Pen and Notebook by Natalie Goldberg «» Memento Mori by Rosanne Griffeth «» BiC by Steven Gullion «» Parting by Evelyn Hampton «» Tuesday by Lindsay Hunter «» Waiting on Lombard Street by W.P. Kinsella «» Johnny by Nance Knauer «» Like Swimming by Jeff Landon «» Feeling Sad by Darby Larson «» Alone With Cooper by Ellen Meister «» The Angel's Visitation by Corey Mesler «» South Dakota by Mary Miller «» California Fruit by Meg Pokrass «» Home Made by Bruce Holland Rogers «» Handful of Dirt by Jim Ruland «» Steam City Girl by Paul Silverman «» Sugar by Claudia Smith «» The 13th Toast by Amy Sparks «» Gathering by Kelly Spitzer «» Tiny Shadows by Maryanne Stahl «» Double-Exposure by Thomas White «» Epistemology by Joseph Young «» Why This Isn't a Good Story to Tell by Shellie Zacharia «» Liquid by Michelle Zellers «» Real Estate by Bonnie ZoBell «» Interviews: Bob Arter «» Matt Bell «» Randall Brown «» Blake Butler «» Brian Allen Carr «» Natascia Casey-Dean «» Dave Clapper «» Myfanwy Collins «» John Colvin «» Katrina Denza «» Murray Dunlap «» Ashley Farmer «» Kathy Fish «» Stefanie Freele «» Scott Garson «» Alicia Gifford «» Rosanne Griffeth «» Steven Gullion «» Evelyn Hampton «» Lindsay Hunter «» Nance Knauer «» Jeff Landon «» Darby Larson «» Ellen Meister «» Corey Mesler «» Mary Miller «» Meg Pokrass «» Bruce Holland Rogers «» Jim Ruland «» Paul Silverman «» Claudia Smith «» Amy Sparks «» Kelly Spitzer «» Maryanne Stahl «» Thomas White «» Joseph Young «» Shellie Zacharia «» Michelle Zellers «» Bonnie ZoBell «» Cover Art "Five Years of SmokeLong" compiled from art by Marty D. Ison, Robert Dornberg, Malina, and Rebecca Gullickson «» Letter From the Editor