The story of the week for July 3 to 7 is…
Shadow Dreams by Bob Thurber
All posts by Tim
LISA CHAMBERS: Family Tree
The majestic oak where Dad used to play, a monument to the past.
The tree where I scraped knees, fashioned dreams, and enjoyed summer breezes whistling through branches.
“Mom, look at me!” my son shouts gleefully from above.
This tree welcomes us home, now that my Father no longer can.
Lisa Chambers is a Texas girl grateful for roots that run deep.
EMMA PENG: A Fisherman Once Told Me a Story
“There; true North.” He said the stars were compasses, but his Abyssus, a compass of the heart, never needed them. Together, they’d delivered fish, chased storms, saved lost souls.
He paused, exhaled, gaze lost at sea—like Abyssus.
On they sailed, passing unassumingly through a world too directionless to notice.
Emma Peng is a recent high school graduate who loves exploring worlds through writing her stories and wildlife blog.
BUD PHARO: The Thirst for Fatherly Approval
On his deathbed, my father’s request that I wear my uniform to his funeral was as close as he’d ever come to saying he was proud of me. As the morphine drip increases and his lucidity fades, my last chance to hear him say he loves me also slips away.
Bud Pharo is a permanently disabled veteran who has recently taken up writing short stories and flash fiction to assist in his recovery. He lives in New Jersey.
FRANK C MODICA: Anniversaries
Frigid November winds shrivel played-out community gardens. The 70-year-old poet sits alone in the 94-year old condo, grieves his father’s ninety-first birthday. Troupes of hybrid SUVs traverse invisible 12,000-year-old glacial moraines. Ripples of multi-colored leaves carpet 100 year-old bricked street intersections.
Frank C. Modica is a retired teacher who taught children with special needs for over 34 years. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Dust Poetry, New Square, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Lit Shark. Frank’s first chapbook, “What We Harvest,” nominated for an Eric Hoffer book award, was published in the fall of 2021 by Kelsay Books. His second chapbook, “Old Friends,” was published this past December by Cyberwit Press.
GUY BIEDERMAN: Needle & Thread
I fall through a hole in the page to a savannah where flea-sized giraffes roam. Adele announces, “Spaghetti’s ready.” Stomach rumbling, Adele grumbling, I return, giraffe in tow, sew the page closed. Table’s unstable. Nothing a matchbook can’t solve. I rise. Spaghetti steam drifts towards a hole in the ceiling.
Guy is the author of Translated From The Original, one-inch punch fiction (Nomadic Press), and five other collections. He’s hooked on cats, coffee, & Cocoa Krispies, but can quit anytime.
BOB THURBER: Shadow Dreams (Another Misadventure of the Broken Boys)
On moonless nights, when darkness unfolds, becoming every shadow’s blanket, the boys dream of shadows sleeping serenely, cuddled in night’s softness. Whenever a shadow snarls or snores, the night muffles the sound into something less disturbing. While the boys dream of shadows, the shadows dream of dancing beneath crisscrossing spotlights.
Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.
EILEEN MARDRES: The Girl with the Purple Hair
First you see the cap of bright purple hair, then dark supporting tresses. Together they frame a beatific smile and lowered eyes. The very image of serenity and beauty, masking the horrendous, courageous journey through abuse and fear that birthed this strong young woman, this girl with the purple hair.
Eileen is writing her way through retirement and grandparenthood.
DAVID SILVER: Beastly for Grandpa
Grandpa was fit but he was convinced he was a wildebeest. Every day he galloped through the cobbled streets, imagining he was making his annual migration through East Africa. Today, Grandpa would have been diagnosed as zoanthropic and would receive psychiatric help. But back in the old days, who gnu?
David Silver was a reporter, sub-editor, and humour columnist on various newspapers in Greater Manchester, England. He retired in 2002 and from 2011-2016 wrote a light-hearted column for The Courier, a weekly newspaper for UK expatriates in Spain.
NICK YOUNG: Ostinato
He adored “Peace Piece.” Each time he would coax me to take the left hand while he played the right. We were joined at the heart and in the beauty of the gentle melody. Now he’s gone, and I sit at the piano alone, one hand lost without the other.
Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, his writing has appeared in more than two dozen publications including the Pennsylvania Literary Journal, The Garland Lake Review, Potato Soup Journal, The San Antonio Review, The Best of CaféLit 11 and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies. He lives outside Chicago.