RUTH MANNINO: Twenty Years Later

Artistic, Submissions, ,

Smoke filled his lungs; sirens filled his ears. He ran, animal instincts kicking in.

People streamed from office buildings, bars, diners, incomprehension on their faces.

TVs tuned to terror; radios blared chilling news. Phone lines down.

The buildings fell. Blood donations not needed.

This could not be happening in America.

Ruth Mannino is a retired math teacher, tutor, and business analyst, who has always loved to write. Meditation and mindfulness being a part of her everyday life, in 2020, she published Thursday Mornings: Breathe, Stretch, Listen, Love, a series of interviews she conducted with senior members of her chair yoga class. She’s been published in Fiftywordstories and SBLAAM. She remembers 9/11 all too well. Her daughter was going to school in Manhattan and was able to contact her before the telephone lines went down.

JIM COURTER: Under a Starry Sky

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

In their backyard on a starry night in August, watching for meteors, she says, “It blows my mind to think the universe is expanding.”

“Mm,” he says.

“Do you not find that amazing?”

“I might when I get an answer to a certain question.”

“And that is?”

“Expanding into what?”

Jim Courter’s short stories have appeared in the United States, Canada, and England. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and has won an Illinois Arts Council award for short fiction. His essays have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Smithsonian, and on the op-ed pages of the Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal. His mystery novel, Rhymes with Fool, was published in 2018 by Peasantry Press. First Things First: Ephemera and Offscourings of a Distracted Writer, a collection of essays, humor, and short stories, was published in 2019.

MATT McHUGH: Beyond the Garden Wall

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“They did it, dad,” Chris Borman said. “The Alcubierre Drive. Faster-than-light travel. Your grandchildren will go to the stars, like you went to orbit.”

Colonel Borman’s palsied hand shook. Chris held his astronaut father’s bluing fingers, knowing he had told him the last lie he would ever need to hear.

Matt McHugh was born in suburban Pennsylvania, attended LaSalle University in Philadelphia, and after a few years as a Manhattanite, currently calls New Jersey home. See more at mattmchugh.com.

NICK YOUNG: Remembrance

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

When the troop train was pulling out of Calais, as he looked from the window, she turned, a stranger. Young, beautiful, she smiled, fleeting, not for him alone… yet, sixty years on, laying in the quiet of his room and drawing his final breath, it was her face he saw.

Nick Young is an award-winning retired CBS News correspondent. His writing has appeared in the collective mystery novel The Whole Wide World (Sweetycat Press), the San Antonio Review, CafeLit Magazine, 50-Word Stories, Fiery Scribe Review, and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies.

JESSICA WORTLEY: Reproduction

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

The family at the next table look embarrassed and you don’t know if it’s because you eat alone, or because their children are squabbling over ice cream.

You read about genetics and look at the art on the walls. There is an empty seascape, and a crowded vase of daffodils.

Jessica is a published writer and a teacher, currently working towards a PhD in creative writing at Teesside University, England. Her first poetry pamphlet As if We Were the Trees, was published in 2015. Her writing has been published with Diamond Twig, Appletree Writers, Reside magazine and in Black Bough magazine, amongst other places.

KATHERINE DARLINGTON: Scent of Tears

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

The market is busy
Lovers, arm in arm
Shop together

But She
Flirts with the flowers
Spilling over the corner aisle
Like her tears

She finds a delicate bouquet
With daisies and one rose
She’ll put them on her kitchen table
And pretend they’re from
Her Lover
(Who never
Was)

Katherine Darlington has articles in many publications including poetry anthologies, along with several published novels. When she isn’t riding horses or hiking on some mountain trail, she’s working on a story. See more of her work at katherinedarlington.com.

R HEMAMALINI: My Sanctuary

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Walking next to him and watching his greying sideburns, my thoughts wandered to the joyous moments with the twins. Chasing the mirage of desires, had I not strayed too far? But his faith had anchored me back to the shore. Forgiven maybe, but will I be able to forgive myself?

R. Hemamalini is an aspiring writer in Turkish, a trained yoga teacher. and a yoga practitioner. See more at hrlockdownmusings.blogspot.com.

MAXIMILLIAN LAYLAND: Still Being

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

I don’t mind the meteor.
I do not mind
The ethereal veil finally broken.
Just once.
And every worry ever uttered,
Put to rest.
All assured.
And the dawn no longer assured…
Dawn. No longer. Assured.

I lie here, Today, the last,
with all questions answered,
forever and always,
Done.

Maximillian studies at UF, writes less than he’d like to, and is trying to fix this.

RE SCHELL: The Family Restaurant

Submissions, Touching, , ,

My parents started our restaurant with family recipes they brought from their home country. Years later, my young daughter began working here with me, just as I had with my parents.

“It’s okay, Dad. It’s time,” my daughter explained through tears, as we locked the doors for the last time.

R.E. Schell works in the biomedical field in California. He enjoys writing and has been published over fifty times in both the biomedical field as well as in fictional genres and poetry. He enjoys photography, literature, and travel. He also volunteers in animal rescue.

CHRISTOPHER GANNON: King of the Sour Mind

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

A yellow-stained newspaper clipping lands on the floor like a whisper. Forbidden sunlight embraces a crumpled mess that is human; a king tormented by his own opinions and beliefs in the land of the Sour Mind. In order to abdicate the throne, he only has to open his eyes.

Christopher Gannon is a storyteller from Buffalo, NY.