The story of the week for May 16 to 20 is…
Kite-Flying by Sally Sadasivam
and
Bookworm by Stephen Gallagher
All posts by Tim
KITTY LASCURAIN: An Offer You Can’t Refuse
You Sammy’s guy? Here about the Caddy? Yeah, he said you’d show.
She’s a beaut: sleek black finish, stain-resistant interior, extra-large trunk… real classy like. Fast? Fuhgeddaboudit! Tell you what; hows about we go for a little ride, eh? Try her out?
You deaf, wise guy? I said get in.
Kitty Lascurain is a DC-area journalist with a serious “I’d-rather-be-writing-fiction” problem. She has published several short stories and is the proud recipient of The Florida Writers Association’s “Royal Palm Literary Award,” which she keeps on her desk next to an ever-growing pile of rejection letters.
KAREN BEATTY: Dilemma
I’m alone in a parked car when a huge serpent with a cobra-like head hovers above my open side window. Staring at its green, vacant, and unblinking eyes, I wonder whether I should just hold very still or fish around for the keys to start the car. Help me, Honda.
Karen Beatty is 77 years old. She prefers surfboards to cars. This cringe-worthy 50-word story tells about the bad things that happen when you leave New York City.
JUDITH DZIERBA: Flavors of Life
like strawberries and champagne
one seed toward ripeness,
bubble bursts into sparkling
like strawberries and champagne
the scent of you, sweetness
your touch, effervescence
for me, love at first fondness
for you, growing into it –
a pairing by chance
the birthing crystallizes
a mother and child
like strawberries and champagne.
Judith wrote this. She was overjoyed to celebrate Mother’s Day together with her daughter after two years of pandemic limitations.
STEPHEN GALLAGHER: Bookworm
Eliza met Matthew in a bookshop.
Can I help? he asked.
I’m looking for a play by Shakespeare.
Which one?
William.
He told the story at their wedding, anniversaries, and parties. Again and again until each word ate into her brain like a worm, like a scalpel, like hemlock.
Stephen is an Irish author living in Ireland. I enjoy reading everything from crime fiction to 19th century gothic short stories, novels and novellas.
NIKITA LINIVENKO: Season of the Jackal
Applause, only slightly forced, thunders up to the balcony. El Caudillo waves at beaming faces, tropical-coloured flags raised high. Aside, he quips, “A good leader is bullet-proof; a great leader is ballot-proof.” Snorts and smirks from his junta.
Then: a crack from the tree-line.
…He was but a great leader.
Nikita Linivenko hopes this story didn’t come out too badly.
TACHIBANA KEN: Note from a Castaway
“Solitary” is an obnoxious euphemism.
Left adrift for far too long; you rush to reel me in only after loneliness manifests as a cry for help. Rejecting an uncertain hand half-extended, my head swirls, stranded in a sea of dissonance. To then soften your sin with semantics? I’d rather drown.
橘ケン (Tachibana Ken) is an aspiring MMA fighter.
SALLY SADASIVAM: Kite-Flying
Mum was a kite, always flying high on some substance or another.
Dad tried to control the kite, regardless of how strong the storm was blowing, always unsuccessfully trying to reel her in.
And I was the string. Always tense and frequently tangled. Trapped between the kite and its maker.
Sally Sadasivam is a doctor by day and amateur flash fiction writer by night.
SAM HALL: The Bridge
We met upon a bridge that stretched between two competing infinities and, before passing one another by, fell in love. Although our meeting place was near collapse and spanned a deep ravine we built a house for ourselves at its centre using struts prized from the bridge, weakening it further.
Sam Hall is a young writer from England.
EILEEN MARDRES: Mom(-in-law)
With marriage she slipped into a second skin, a dual persona for her, a new name for children to come. The marriage ended, but the skin had fused; shedding it was impossible. She clung tenaciously to her daughter-in-law status, happy for cards in the mailbox and life advice – from Mom.
In retirement, Eileen thinks that “writer” is a good answer to “What do I want to do be I grow up?”.