The story of the week for December 11 to 15 is…
The Shape Shifter at 50 by Michelle Wilson
BRENDA LEE CARLSON: I’m a Writer
I love being ejected from coffee shops for staying past my welcome. So, I pour the brandy generously into my coffee from my flask. When I take a sip, I sigh, then open my laptop, calling myself a writer. The manager opens his flip phone and calls himself the police.
Brenda Lee Carlson is a writer from Minnesota. She has an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing. She’s devouring YA novels and collecting The Phantom of the Opera memorabilia when not building libraries for those in need.
CHARITY ORRISON: Sonder
Wind had whipped her red curls up into a frenzy. I watched with contained amusement as a gust lifted the full mane of hair into a thought bubble. Slender gloved hands flew out of coat pockets to tame it back down. As she passed I considered saying hello, but didn’t.
Charity lives in Denver, Colorado with a husband and a Siamese cat.
KELLY DWYER: While She Slept
She awakened bleeding and sore
from where half the men
in the kingdom
had passed through Godmother’s
brambles, and then had pricked
her while she’d slept
until her prince came—
satisfied, dashing,
sword drawn—
but too late to do any good,
and gave Aurora
one more kiss
she didn’t want.
Kelly Dwyer’s third novel, GHOST MOTHER, will be published by Union Square & Co. In August 2024. Her flash fiction is often inspired by her imaginings of the Disney Princesses at middle age. Say hello at KellyDwyerAuthor.com.
ROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: Nuts!
Every December, our family’s dining table centerpiece was a bowl of nuts, emptied long before Christmas. From almonds to walnuts, we each claimed favorites. I devoured the pecans. On her deathbed, Mom whispered to me, “I always adored pecans.”
Roberta Beach Jacobson is the author of Demitasse Fiction: One-Minute Reads for Busy People (Alien Buddha Press, 2023).
ELYSE RIBBONS: Snowbirding
First time as a snowbird. Hadn’t expected to feel the rip and pull of my roots so intensely. How can a bird have roots? Well, I do. And now I don’t. But my wings have spread, and the warmth is seeping in. Welcoming in that winter sunshine with a sigh.
Elyse Ribbons is an American author and playwright formerly based in Chengdu, China, but currently snowbirding in Florida. With an MFA in Peking Opera and a graduate of the Stanford GSB, she has a wide variety of interests and experiences. She publishes work in both English and Chinese.
MICHELLE WILSON: The Shape Shifter at 50
For his workaholic wife, he’d become a coffee maker, pillows, the soothing sound of rain.
The girls knew him as a tricycle, pastry chef, fairy tales.
Wife gone, kids flown, rather than shift into an empty nest, he took up writing, went for walks, and baked himself a birthday cake.
Michelle Wilson’s words have appeared in 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 Miami Beach, Florida.
CAROL REEVES: Shifting Tides
It caught her by surprise.
Just yesterday, she was the nucleus of the family. They’d gather from afar for holidays, united by childhood memories, eager to share their new lives. Today, those cherished traditions are folding into new traditions for new families.
Life moves on—as, of course, it should.
A prolific writer, Carol Reeves is loving the freedom and challenges of 50-word stories. Her memoir, “All the Little Miracles,” was published last year. She often writes of the privilege and vicissitudes of aging, a subject she knows well.
TONY DAWSON: Love’s a Laugh
He was taking his usual evening stroll around the Alameda with his incommunicative wife. Her default position was stolid silence.
The Alameda was alive with groups at tables conversing and laughing. He asked her, “Why don’t you ever laugh?”
He tripped. Before he lost consciousness, he heard his wife laughing.
Tony Dawson, 86, lives in Seville and has been scribbling since the pandemic. He has published one poetry collection, “Afterthoughts” and one small selection of flash fiction, “Curiouser and Curiouser”. His poems and fiction have appeared in print and online in the USA, the UK and Australia.
PATRICK YU: Frozen
I dream to fly
Soar and glide
But my feathers
Are grounded
Frozen shores entice me
I venture out
I tempt fate
As the thin ice cracks
Your are always in my mind
I Was Frozen
When I lost you
How do I release you
So I can fly
Again
Patrick Yu is retired and from time to time likes to share 50 words.