Scott Stealey’s "Cold Was the Ground" has us more excited about story than we’ve been in quite a while. Gina, protagonist, a rather lonely condo dweller/office manager, strikes up a fleeting friendship with one Porgo, an Eastern European construction worker who is burying on her property what Gina takes for a time capsule. But the metaphorical fix is in -- Porgo, an ESL student, may be leading Gina in directions she can’t exactly get her head all the way around. Enjoy. Chicago writer Stealey is editor of the Please Don’t online mag and has been published in several venues. Stealey participates in our June 2010 Nerves of Steel event (every third Sunday of the month at Whistler in Logan Square, Chicago).

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