SF Read of the Week

I pry open her mouth. She resists, for some reason, but I pry her lips and teeth apart and shove the stone in, banging it against the plate of her false teeth. She stares straight ahead but makes a funny noise. I keep her mouth open and, practically sitting now, almost on the arm of the chair, grab a handful of stones and begin shoving them into her mouth. Her arms flap up, she jerks her head. "Come on," I say, "you remember, don't you?"

This story of a mother dealing with her child being sent off to war will be perfect for the literary SF crowd, or the literary crowd that doesn't much like science fiction but can deal with magical realism.

It's "Anyway" by Mary Rickert, at Scifiction.