Would life have been easier if you had died? You left. My heart struggled, fearful and uncertain. Sadness watered my heart, transforming tears into caterpillars. You found purpose with a new love. I stretched and lifted skyward, chasing butterflies, searching new joy.
Then you died, and no, it wasn’t easier.
Eileen is forever chasing butterflies metaphorically as a source of hope and inspiration.
My Dad lost his Bible, a photo of his late wife lovingly tucked inside. It was like losing her again. Eventually his mind eased, but never his heart.
Then a surprising call came. His Bible was found!
Heaven claimed Dad before I could tell him. Somehow, I think he knows.
Lisa Chambers is a Texas girl who cherishes the returned Bible as much as her Dad would have.
Sometimes you feel that even your religion teacher is in on the conspiracy against you. He marks your exam five points in your favor, and you wonder if this is another test to see whether you will confess.
You kneel in a pew and wait your turn at the confessional.
Although Elizabeth no longer takes religion classes, she muses that it’s been a long time since her last confession.
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for July were:
Surprise Ending by Bob Thurber
Sporting a New Baseball Cap by Lynn Kozlowski
Firelight by William Mitchell
Collaboration by Sam Hall
The winner of the July 2024 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Surprise Ending
“Magenta roses!” she exclaims as I step off the bus. “My favorite!”
“Ma’am, have we met?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “But it was fun to pretend to be the lucky lady.”
That evening, my mother reaches for her second best vase, then remarks, “Your brother got me opera tickets.”
Joanna Norland is a writing coach, playwright, mother of two and mom blogger at mumswrite.com. With just enough spare time on her hands to scribble fifty fictional words a month and read two fifty word stories a day.
When we moved here, your rain boots disappeared somewhere in the garage among snowshoes, coats, and tackle boxes. “I hate this place!” you screeched whenever it rained. You stomped muddy puddles in protest. When we moved again, your boots magically reappeared. “Finally,” you said and threw them in the trash.
Justin Ho is a short story writer and novelist from Fort Collins, Colorado.
Each night, we kiss before sleep, never knowing how far-flung or profound our parting may be; our souls must traverse the myriad dimensions of distant dreamscapes. Will we become stranded on some faraway lucid shore or awaken and return, either lesser or greater, richer or poorer, to reclaim one another?
Since she could talk, Cate Covert has been regaling friends and family with her tall tales. She loves engaging with her reading audiences. Her poetry, flash fiction, and humorous stories reside at Cate Covert on Chadashah.org, and her Inspirational essays at Pastora Cate’s Corner on Substack.
Mess Sergeant Kelly, a nice old guy,
always asked us as we left the mess hall,
“What did you think of today’s chow, boys?”
We always gave the same charitable reply
just to make him smile.
Kelly was a little deaf
and couldn’t tell the difference
between “Swell” and “Swill”.
Gene Newman was a USAF cryptologist during the Korean War and is a retired engineer and journalist, including stringing for the N.Y. Times and being a crossword puzzle creator for the New York Times and USA Today.
The story of the week for July 29 to August 2 is…
In the Course of the Investigation by Bob Lucky
She shreds the cloak of past trauma. She defies present challenges.
Then, she stops fighting. She treasures her newfound peace.
A trace of sadness lingers somewhere within; the remnant is part of her now. If she lets that go, she’d be incomplete. She wouldn’t know how to grieve for herself.
Shanti Chandrasekhar writes and lives in Maryland. Her work has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Braided Way, Literary Mama, The Washington Post, and elsewhere.