The story of the week for April 7 to 11…
Moonshine by Deborah Tapper
All posts by Tim
JOSIE LEJEUNE: Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Brown, queen of the classroom.
57,559 hours of Romans, Vikings, Celts behind her, over and over.
Sandwich every lunchtime. Tweed suit, lace-ups, greying bun. Kids in navy uniforms, year after year.
History unchanging.
Endless, exquisite hours ahead.
Sequinned dress. High-heels. Flowing hair.
Queen of the ballroom.
History to write.
Josie Lejeune wrote this story.
MICHELLE WILSON: What Is Broken Can Be Healed
My parents never learned how to heal. Their bodies crippled by ancient, long-neglected wounds, they hobbled through wasted days with shattered arms, legs, tongues, and feet.
When they pinned me down with four broken hands, their intentions were clear.
Wrestling away, I escaped in one piece—minus a broken heart.
Michelle Wilson graduated from Bennington College with a degree in literature and creative writing. Her words have appeared in 365 Tomorrows, Bending Genres, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Rejection Letters, Potato Soup Journal’s Best of 2021 Anthology, Maudlin House, Litro Magazine, The Drabble, 50-Word Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, among others. Her story ‘Fish Brain’ was nominated for Best of the Net 2022. She lives with her partner in Washington, DC. She can be found at https://michellekwilson.wordpress.com/.
SUZANNE AUBIN: A Praying Chance
Underneath the Sacred Heart calendar, my grandparents ask me to kneel after supper. Seven heads bow under the fluorescent light; one Our Father, ten Holy Marys, an endless repetition of sounds muttered in hopes of better jobs and better lives, my grandmother’s tired voice, trailing the “Amen” with well-practiced resignation.
Suzanne Aubin is a retired language teacher who loves all things artistic and the great outdoors. She lives in Kelowna, BC.
JS O’KEEFE: Double Walker
I meet me ambling in the grocery store
and look into my cart
what a cheapo man am I
Saturday too I saw me in the state park
wearing torn yoga pants and old tennis shoes
like a gutterpup
I’d better start avoiding places
where I can bump into me
J.S. O’Keefe has published over three hundred short stories and poems in print and online literary magazines. See more at szjohnny.net.
CAROL REEVES: Insight
When my children were young, they’d play outside ‘til the streetlights came on. A cranky old lady lived down the block. They called her Crab. Woe be the kid who chased a ball across her lawn. Now that I’m old, I think I get it. It wasn’t about the lawn.
A prolific writer, Carol Reeves is loving the fun, freedom and challenge of Flash Fiction. She frequently writes about the privilege and vicissitudes of aging. Her stories are frequently published in Flash Fiction Magazine and 50 Word Stories. Her memoir, “All the Little Miracles,” was published in 2022.
LITSA DREMOUSIS: Percy’s Grave
I lay flat on the cold, wet grass and looked up at the starlit sky. I worried security might catch me. I hoped his ghost, if it existed, might drop by. But the hours unspooled and neither appeared. I was alone, and by morning I knew I’d stay that way.
Litsa Dremousis (she/her) is the author of Altitude Sickness (Future Tense Books). Seattle Metropolitan Magazine named it one of the all-time “20 Books Every Seattleite Must Read”.
STORY OF THE MONTH: March 2025
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for March were:
Whispers of the Woods by Michael Samuel
The Gift a Medical Power of Attorney Bestows Upon You by Sharon Gerger
The Little Hours by Alexandra Keister
Images of You by Gabe Bonney
The Chanterelle Hunters by Jenny Mattern
Strangers by Li Ruan
Rock Pool by Lynn White
The winner of the March 2025 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
The Gift a Medical Power of Attorney Bestows Upon You
DEBORAH TAPPER: Moonshine
She brings that potent moonshine she always bragged could raise the dead and we drink together, recalling our most audacious heists. She’s endlessly fishing, but I’m evasive; once she knows where the money’s hidden she won’t return, whatever she says.
She leaves dissatisfied. And I crawl back into my grave.
Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.
JACOB ALEXANDER: Academy of the Ash
The scholar oversaw mountains of ash: remnants of one thousand worldly tomes.
By cultivating the pile he believed that its intellectual integrity could be preserved.
“If matter cannot be created nor destroyed, then surely wisdom remains eternal.”
When winds dispersed that knowledge, his tears held sorrow for one thousand hopes.
Jacob Alexander’s poetry deals with destruction and hope within the human mind and imagined futures. In his daily life, he is a freelance editor who enjoys listening to music, playing the drums, and analyzing films.