Drinking With Satan

Passed out on the damp concrete stairs...
Along Lake Pontchartrain...
Surrounded by empty gin bottles...
Remembering nothing but my first name...

Jeffrey Pipes Guice

An Unlikely Couple

A story of intergenerational love between two women.
People enter our lives, perhaps only for a moment, a few months, or a few years. One may need more than the other, but often there is still a meaningful exchange. Sometimes those people come wrapped in unexpected packages.

Patricia Grayhall

Being Santa Claus, The 1st Time!

The Very First Time - How It All Began
25 years ago, in early December, a close friend of mine had shared with me that he was a volunteer Santa. He made appearances at various holiday parties for charities and organizations that did not have funds to hire a Santa.

Don Kennedy

My Unconditional Relationship

I remember back in 2007 when my younger sister Madeleine was dying from cancer. I got down on my knees and I prayed as hard as I’ve ever prayed before to God...

Jeffrey Pipes Guice

Go Ask Your Grand

When it comes to solving problems…
And you don’t think your Mom will understand…
You need to find the best solutions…
That’s right! Go ask your Grand!

Jeffrey Pipes Guice

Drinking With Satan

Passed out on the damp concrete stairs...
Along Lake Pontchartrain...
Surrounded by empty gin bottles...
Remembering nothing but my first name...

Jeffrey Pipes Guice

The Amazing Turn

We met in a casual existence...
It was all very simple and kind...
She seemed to be a nice girl...
In my world, an impossible find...

Jeffrey Pipes Guice

After Life

Something dragged Mo out of darkness toward the lights, away from the body that lay in the hospital bed with Amy crying crocodile tears on one side and his children, pale and frightened, on the other.
He had to warn them...

Cathy Cade

Bunny

“Could we divert a library assistant to shelve these returns while I’m at the book meeting? Celia is familiar with their classification.”
“I expect it’s time I got to grips with it,” I said. “Celia’s writing tickets.”...

Cathy Cade

When Grace Comes to Call

The ear-piercing ring of the telephone at four o’clock on a Saturday morning jolted me from a sound sleep. When I lunged for it, it toppled off the bedside table and landed on the floor. I tumbled after it, hit the light switch, and grabbed the receiver.

Donna Peizer

The Companion

The Companion
by
Karen S. Bell
The white jagged mountain sparkled beneath a rare, cloudless cobalt-blue sky and seemed near enough to touch. It was the Great One, Denali, called so by the Athabaskan Indians but known as McKinley to the white man.

Karen S. Bell

Fluffy's Christmas Gift

The fresh smell of cinnamon filled the air as red powder settled on the cotton balls. The ornament trembled while a tickling chill passed through its fluffy white fibers onto its cardboard body. The feeling moved up its wooden spine rattling the snowman’s bottle-top hat. The snowman’s eyes jiggled and then gazed into the face of a freckled, red-haired boy.

Charles W. Page MD

HIS little RULE BREAKER

“The rules are clearly spelled out in the brochure.”
The words tumbled around in her head. The rules. The rules. The rules! How could she have been this stupid? Everyone who entered the club had to read them. Needed to sign them.

Karen Nappa

Here

From the upcoming short story collection “The Man Who Screams at Nightfall”
 
HERE
 
He plunged his arms into his kitchen trash can, digging down, way down, past coffee grounds, that morning's scrambled eggs, that night's macaroni and cheese. Yogurt and honey mustard sauce smeared his forearms until he reached his destination: a pack of American Spirit menthol cigarettes crumpled at the bottom.

Rush Leaming

Bunny

Formerly a tank under Russian control, Bunny the tank was now firmly under Ukrainian control.

Liam Robert Mullen

Animals Don’t Criticize But They Do Judge

“Animals are such agreeable friends . . . they ask no questions; they pass no criticism” … George Elliot
 
Mister rose to his feet and tip-toed three steps to the metal door of our mobile home. The hair on his back rising as he reached the door. Three sharp knocks announced a visitor. Rosalie struggled to her feet then leaned back to balance the watermelon-size protrusion that was to be our firstborn. Mister positioned himself between her and the door as she waddled towards it.

​

Action Heroes: A Flash Fiction Fable

I awoke and instantly realized how fuzzy my head felt. And the inside of my mouth. And everything. Ugh, I thought, the mere thought sending waves of pain rippling through my brain, how much did I drink?
The answer, I saw as I pried my eyes open, was all of it. There were cans lying everywhere. There were bottles lying amongst them. One bottle appeared to have a crushed-up can in it. That would be Fister®, I knew. Such a show-off.

Don Jones

Astro Cab

"I hate space!" I thought that to myself at least once a day during my days as an Astro-Cab driver. Sure, the idea of driving through the galaxy, meeting new people, and seeing all kinds of celestial wonders sounded like fun on paper, but that's only for those who get to drive in the better parts of the Milky Way. Me, I was stuck in the Tenderloin—the armpit of the universe. After a few years, I learned one thing: this galaxy is full of crazies!

Norman Luce

Hall of Knowledge

There was a heavy pounding at the Hall's front---well, only---door. "Humph," Izi grumbled. "That almost never happens."
"Someone at the door," Siti called from where she was busy cleaning up after their breakfast.

Don Jones

Liar Boss

Its a drama story about a chance for redemption. It kicks off at a farmhouse with no explanation and no guilty so a forensic scientist try get other opportunity in other job but no one will give it expect an A columnist, who is poor but have news that a research institute's confidential database has been hacked and theres a twist the For the first half of the story, it's a case of mistaken identity.

Wilda N Adorno

Touched by an angel?

Many years ago, I visited Vienna and joined an early morning coach tour to Salzburg. Our tour guide led us on a walking tour from the Salzburg city center toward the site where the film, the Sound of Music, was shot. Sixty minutes, several turns, and many gardens later, we arrived. The scenery was spectacularly amazing. After guiding us through the intricacies of the movie site and explaining the mysteries of the location, the guide told us we could start our free time to enjoy lunch and explore further on our own. Before he took leave, he told us to make our way back to the city center by 4 pm sharp for our return to Vienna, or risk being stranded in Salzburg.

Dr Andrew C S Koh

A Day in the Life of Lady Locksley

“Robin, you cannot be serious!”
 
“Trust me, Marian!”
 
Those famous last words echo through my mind as my body slips from its highly camouflaged position in an obliging oak tree and falls onto the back of a horse that is already saddled with a wounded child: Ty. A sigh escapes my lips. This young lad gets himself into more trouble than anyone I know - save Robin.

Carol Weakland

Heart Over Mind

Heart Over Mind
© 2014, Ernie Lee
School let out early for some reason. I didn’t know why, nor did I care very much. I could hear Momma and Grandma arguing all the way out back to Jack’s pen. Jack was what we called a brindle in those days. He would probably be called a pit bull today, but we hadn’t heard that term in South Texas in the 1950s. He was a big fellow, easily forty pounds heavier than my skinny self.

Ernie Lee

A love for Eternity

Rachel tossed her shoes in the car and closed the door. She had always loved the feel of sand between her toes. No, perhaps not always, but definitely since that night. The night that had changed the course of her life irrevocably.

Tricia McGill

Rebels

Olivia loved protests. She liked holding banners best of all. This time it was bright yellow and asked the most poignant question of her generation. "Which Side Are You On?"

Richard R. Becker

Time's ruin

My span is defined, not so much by the substance of the years, but rather by the weight of generations, past to present, by an endowment of wonton neglect of those imperfectly loved and an inconstant attachment to the affirmations of acceptance, gratitude and charity...

Stephen Twartz

Out of the Cold

It must have been more than ten years, an age it seemed to Daniel since he had laid eyes on the man, a lonely figure, trudging doggedly across the barren dunes that built to steep walls against the encroachment of the sea...

Stephen Twartz

Redemption - The Severed Cord

He folded his fingers about the reins. The fingers of his left hand felt slightly stiff in the cold of the morning. He hoisted himself lightly into the saddle; it smelled of oil...