The story of the week for August 23 to 27 is…
OBstacles by Joshua Addison
All posts by Tim
RITA RIEBEL MITCHELL: A Distracted Brain
Conversations that I don’t hear. Bills that I forget to pay. Dinners that burn.
Time passes and I’m late. Missed appointments and lost opportunities.
Did I turn off the lights and lock the door? When is the last time I stopped for gas?
My car putts and stutters and stalls.
Rita Riebel Mitchell writes and lives in the Pinelands of South Jersey with her favorite beta reader.
KATHERINE DARLINGTON: Finnish Summer
Strawberries line a path to your garden:
Shimmering, golden, quivering! The lake!
You are ripe;
Will you heal me if
I fall into you, this dry, cold soul?
(Bury me in your depth! Taste my fear!)
Rain falls; I come to the surface:
A war finally won with only
Me.
Katherine Darlington has articles in many publications including poetry anthologies, along with several published novels. When she isn’t riding horses or hiking on some mountain trail, she’s working on a story. See more of her work at New Beginnings.
JOSHUA ADDISON: OBstacles
We left the building for the last time. All the pain, joy, tears and hope we’d experienced within its walls seemed suddenly distant.
I turned to take one more look at the infertility clinic. My wife gently took my hand and with tears in my eyes I held her close.
Joshua Addison always enjoys a good short story.
JIM COURTER: Flush
Lou came flush to the game, with a wad of twenties, fifties, and hundreds. After winning that first hand, with a flush, he felt flush with victory. By midnight—broke, embarrassed—he knew he’d been taken.
He went to the bathroom. Finished, he thought, I’ll show them. He didn’t flush.
Jim Courter’s short stories have appeared in the United States, Canada, and England. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and has won an Illinois Arts Council award for short fiction. His essays have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Smithsonian, and on the op-ed pages of the Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal. His mystery novel, Rhymes with Fool, was published in 2018 by Peasantry Press. First Things First: Ephemera and Offscourings of a Distracted Writer, a collection of essays, humor, and short stories, was published in 2019.
NICK PRICE: Mismatched Socks
Jerry glanced down at his perpetually untied sneakers and noticed that he was wearing two different socks, one ankle and one crew. He pulled the left up and pushed the right down.
He rang the doorbell for the second time, then knocked for good measure, hoping that she would answer.
Nick works as a clinician at a mental health crisis hotline. He writes a bit for fun.
LISA CHAMBERS: Therapy
Lying down, I proceed to recount my worrisome problems.
He listens in silence, taking it all in. No judgment. This is my safe space.
Finishing up the session, I breathe a sigh of relief at the weight lifted.
I thank him for listening. His tail wags in return.
“Night, Siggy!”
Lisa Chambers is a Texas girl who enjoys writing short stories and is always honored to be featured here.
STORY OF THE MONTH: July 2021
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for July were:
Eight Blocks From Here to Home by Jim Latham
Where It All Became by Rachel Canwell
Takiwatanga by Deirdre Smith
Grocery Shopping by Cheryl Somers Aubin
The winner of the July 2021 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Takiwatanga
A well executed character portrait is always a joy to read in microfiction, especially when it provides insight or perspective on experiences or circumstances that might be different from what many of us face. Thanks for sharing this with us, Deirdre.
C JEAN DOWNER: Where My Friend’s Brother Died
Townsfolk named it Suicide Hill, a dirt road heading into the setting sun. It intersected train tracks near the bottom, with no warning lights or crossbars. My friend called it Memory Lane, and we rode our bikes in the midday, coasting toward make-shift crosses, feet off pedals, setting spirits free.
C. Jean Downer is a writer of creative words; here are fifty. She lives in Surrey, British Columbia. You can find her at cjeandowner.com and on Twitter at @cjeandowner.
PAULINE RENDALL: While I was looking away
You said you’d always love me. I said the same. Your hand touched me, soft, like swansdown. Unseeing, I folded my body inside the comfort of your embrace, nestling into your feathery warmth.
Too late I felt you move apart, your wings opening wide as you lifted upwards and away.
Pauline writes mostly crime, and has a novel published on Kindle in her pen name Paula K. Randall, Hangman’s Wood. She also enjoys writing in short bites. See more at wivenhoewritersblogspot.com.