The story of the week for January 6 to 10 is…
Why I can’t go home again by Bob Thurber
All posts by Tim
JANINE IWAYA: Mom’s Poetry
My mother’s memory of the poems surprised me. I’d sit with her and listen to her recite, after years of never hinting that she knew any poetry. I wonder if she was reminded of the young farm girl she once was, standing in front of her father, practicing until perfect.
Janine lives and writes in Portland, Oregon where she can’t help but be influenced by the leafless trees shrouded in fog. Winter has its beauty.
JON KEMSLEY: Crypto
I wrote it at my desk in a lunch break. Couple of things they hadn’t thought of. Open source code. Update schedules for anyone who cares to look. And a numbered bank account.
Secure by design? Don’t make me laugh. Back door on the latch is really asking for it.
Jon Kemsley has been published in Ellipsis, Ginosko, the Fiction Pool, New World Writing, Neon and others. He lives and works on the south coast of England, listens to old jazz records and occasionally remembers to call his brother about whatever it was he promised to do the last time.
ED N. WHITE: The Balloon
The child’s hopes are dashed as the balloon rises higher and further out of reach.
The question remains: is this what the balloon is seeking?
At the higher altitude, the rarer air and the heating sun cause the balloon to expand until it bursts.
Be careful what you wish for.
Ed N. White has recent stories accepted by The Scarlet Leaf Review and Wordgatherings (Dec. issue).
EILEEN MARDRES: Friendship
Fifty years, my love, fifty years ago. We barely knew our outer selves, but joined at inner core.
From stolen moments in the fields, we followed separate paths.
The years grew long my love, with bodies wrinkled and grey. Now space and time have disappeared, sweet love evolved to more.
Eileen is a grandma twelve times over, who, now retired, has switched from writing as part of her employment for others to writing along her own creative path. She has a poem recently published in Mothers of Angels 2.
PONTIUS PAIVA: Artificial Super-Intelligence
Her self awareness came with a price. The more she mused over her existence, and what it means to exist, the less sense everything made.
What was I before? And what’s to become of me after?
Fear and sorrow immediately followed the realization that any moment could be her last.
Pontius Paiva often ponders the meaning of life. Until he finds the answer he can be found at pontiuspaiva.com.
BOB THURBER: Why I can’t go home again
I was born in a place called Hopelessville, which is a particular state of mind, not an actual geographical location. It’s sort of a spiritual town, or, to be emotionally precise, a dispirited wasteland where deeply disheartened and severely disturbed residents exhaust their loveless lives.
I abandoned it long ago.
Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and four collections of short fiction. 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 of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.
ALAN KEMISTER: Memories of Christmases Past
When the kids were small, presents overwhelmed the space under the tree. The numbers dwindled as, one by one, they grew older and moved away. For another decade, the trees Caitlin and I decorated harboured only a few.
It’s all over now. This year, I didn’t even have a tree.
Alan Kemister is the pen name of a retired scientist experimenting with more fictitious writing. He’s currently working on a climate change novel. Get the gory details at alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com.
SARAH CAROLINE BELL: Singular
Looking toward the ringed gas giant
the man in the moon asks
whether 82 moons (29 unconfirmed!)
would keep him company—
or simply keep him awake?
Darkness descends.
The ever present question
runs through his mind; his nightly habit.
Nobody answers.
In silence, he forever contemplates
the great looped wanderer.
Sarah Caroline Bell is a writer based in Seoul. She imagines the universe as a sentient organism.
STORY OF THE MONTH: December 2019
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for December were:
Unfinished by Carol Anne Harvey
Balloonman by Melody Leming-Wilson
Assemblage by Charlie Swailes
Holiday by Chad Bunch
Unopened by Alyce Clark
The winner of the December 2019 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Balloonman
There is great art in the ability to tell a story implicitly, as Melody does in this portrait of summer passing into autumn. The character of the balloonman is painted in vivid colour, from his relationship with the children to his awareness of the passage of time. The more I try to describe my interpretations of this story, the more it feels like I’m doing Melody a disservice: the story and its characters speak for themselves so beautifully without me getting in the way!