The story of the week for February 15 to 19 is…
Juniper by Michael Anthony Fagan
All posts by Tim
JON FAIN: Split Check
In a restaurant, after the entrees were cleared, her mother would take out her compact. For Grace, it’s the phone. The device whispers sweet gossip, swaps intimacies, but in the family tradition, the reflected image is never flattering enough. Like Mom, when cracked by disappointment, she doubles down on dessert.
Jon Fain’s most recent publications are a short story in Fiction on the Web, a humor piece in Riot Act, flash fiction in Back Patio Press, and a personal essay in Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability Through Literature and the Fine Arts. Twitter-wise, he’s @jonsfain, where you can find links to his published work in 2020.
ROBB LANUM: Cheated
Paul was enraged. He’d done everything right.
He’d aced the CPA exam at 22, slaved to buy the house with the backyard, skipped family vacations when busy season hit, put the twins through college. He’d held up his end of the bargain.
But his wife got old and died anyway.
Robb Lanum is a failed screenwriter in Los Angeles. His longer, epic works have appeared on 101words.org [link: 101words.org], and he was a winner of the Summer 2020 Los Angeles Public Library Short Story Contest.
JAN HARRISON: Open Door Opportunity
She said she would leave the door open for me and she would be upstairs, waiting, dressed appropriately. As I approached the door, my heart began to beat faster. It was dark downstairs but I knew my way around. I’d been in this jewellers’ shop many times before, just browsing…
Jan Harrison likes to write ditties, poetry and short stories and has had one children’s short story published. A Graphologist by profession she enjoys most aspects of creative writing.
KURT VAN RISTELL: Climber
The quality of the light is different at this altitude. Faint as the air. The face of his watch has frozen over, and to wipe it, he would need to un-pocket his warm right hand.
It might be noon or twilight.
He crunches onward, past another huddled pair of bodies.
Kurt Van Ristell is an author from London, England, who writes because travel is simply too expensive.
MICHAEL ANTHONY FAGAN: Juniper
By daylight, they told her how she was born: her birth mother fled, abandoned like a burning oil rig.
She was wildfire: unplanned, unwanted.
When the world was at its darkest, she carved a hole in the sky and crawled inside.
The stars look different when you are behind them.
Michael Anthony Fagan is a Scottish fiction writer from just outside Glasgow. He is a high school English and Media teacher who has a passion for horror, science fiction, and making documentaries. He is currently working on his debut novel and finding places to publish his short stories.
STEPHEN GOODLAD: Clean Break
You stood small, despite borrowed heels, all grown up in a too-long evening gown that showed off your delicate collarbone. When you tripped and fell, it broke cleanly, requiring two pins to repair.
I kissed the line of stitches as you lay in bed, and you only cried out once.
Stephen is a retired Social Worker using writing as an antidote to lockdown.
HELEN CHAMBERS: Old Bird
Snarling traffic overloads the melting roads, depositing bickering families to scuttle across the beach and leave behind their litter. She picks over their detritus at dawn, venturing out alone. As she paddles on the rising tide, she is gilded by the sun which breathes its infected warmth over the sand.
Helen Chambers wrote this story.
JOSEF LEMOINE: Learning to Love
The lovebot learned to love by watching her creator, studying his responses to his wife’s tearful pleas.
When the creator finally commanded the lovebot to adore him, she mirrored his demonstrations by cocking back her steel-boned fist. One strike was all it took to reveal the depths of her love.
Josef Lemoine is a Filipino-American writer living in Southern California with his wife, son, and daughter. In a past life, his work could be found in Word Riot, RipRap, The Legendary, and Boston Literary Magazine. His writing can still be found in Dogzplot, Bending Genres, and Medium. A poem of his will soon be published in **** Men Say to Me: A Poetry Anthology in Response to Toxic Masculinity from Moon Tide Press. Follow him at instagram.com/joseflemoine
STORY OF THE MONTH: January 2021
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for January were:
A False Hope by L.D. Water
Home by Yash Seyedbagheri
A Country Walk by Ben Mimmack
Homecoming by Finn Burnett
Roxana by Karalyn Wayne
The Tragedy of P–k by C.M.F. Wright
The winner of the January 2021 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Homecoming
Finn Burnett did a great job of setting off the cycle of hopelessness and hopefulness in the character’s life, with beautiful use of language.