The story of the week for July 19 to 23 is…
Grocery Shopping by Cheryl Somers Aubin
JOHN H. DROMEY: I Can’t Even Tell You the Title
Anon essayed a purely descriptive tale. The result? A formulaic editor’s dream, but a story enthusiast’s nightmare.
By telling perusers nothing—despite showing plenty—the disjointed narrative had a ho-hum beginning, a muddle, and an enigmatic ending.
With no explication whatsoever, readers could only wonder what it was all about.
John H. Dromey thinks this story is about someone’s pet peeve (inspired perhaps by comments from a particularly inflexible show-don’t-tell editor). As always, and as it should be, readers can decide for themselves.
NIKITA LINIVENKO: The Ink’s Run Out, So Let’s Use Blood
Pulling my hair out, trying to get every sentence right. Hemingway says there’s nothing to it; that all you have to do is sit and bleed. I hemorrhage, knowing time can’t salvage a fluff-piece.
The Marquee de Sade wrote his magnum opus on toilet paper. Mine’s writing on the wall.
Nikita Linivenko failed English his junior year of High School (due to lack of trying).
MANDIRA PATTNAIK: Delicate
Tomorrow will bring the unfortunate headline of a raging forest fire devouring settlements. Drought-hit, fire-prone. We, witnessing doom, end.
Today, you and I are having tea after a nice shower at the Himalayan resort, letting the tap flow unceasingly while I scrub your back, worries draining into someone else’s backyard.
Mandira Pattnaik lives in India where the climate crisis has reached alarming levels. Find more about her in mandirapattnaik.wordpress.com.
MATTHEW EICHENLAUB: After
After anger, hurt got exposed
again. We sit quiet on a deck,
six feet above ground. A sprinkler
waves water east to west
across new grass, yellow straw,
but some drums hard, like soldiers’
cadence across the deck. Our cat
peeks from behind a post,
pads by, avoids our touch.
Matthew writes poems and short stories, and is worried how divided America is. Like Pink Floyd, he can no longer tell heaven from hell, blue skies from pain, a green field from a cold steel rail or a smile from a veil. Wish you were here.
MARC LITTMAN: Manifest
With his inner vision, Milford manifested wishes for everyone but himself.
He showered his family and friends with cars, homes, and riches in hopes of gaining the love they’d always withheld. Instead they asked for more, until Milford manifested his own desire and willed the universe to make him blind.
Marc Littman is a prolific writer whose micro fiction has been widely published. He also writes longer short stories, novels and plays.
RITA RIEBEL MITCHELL: Fire of Unknown Origin
Awakened by a flash of heat, I cough out unbreathable air. Light dances across my eyelids. They fling open and tears blur my vision. I blink and stare at flames crawling across the wall. Paint blisters and blackens. Curtains disintegrate into floating ash.
A smoke detector dangles, broken and silent.
Rita Riebel Mitchell writes and lives in the Pinelands of South Jersey with her favorite beta reader. See more at rrmitchell.com.
DOUG HAWLEY: Myth
A bunch of them broke into my home shouting gibberish while I was sleeping. I awoke and tried to get them to leave, but they pointed these odd-looking weapons at me. I had no choice but to fire my lasers at them.
Until now, I thought humans were a myth.
Doug Hawley is a little old man who lives in Lake Grove Oregon USA. After retiring as an actuary, he began writing, collecting music, hiking, snowshoeing, and volunteering. More personal and writing info is in his blog and on his website.
CHERYL SOMERS AUBIN: Grocery Shopping
The son, his tie loosened after a long day, stands next to his dad who wears mismatched clothes. The dad looks at the grocery store shelves, then at his son.
“Dad, this is one mom used.”
The dad pauses, reaches for the can of soup, puts it in the basket.
Cheryl Somers Aubin has an MA/Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She is the former nonfiction editor for the Literary Journal Delmarva Review. Cheryl teaches memoir writing and is a featured speaker at writing conferences and workshops. She is the author of The Survivor Tree: Inspired by a True Story, which is available at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and online.
STORY OF THE MONTH: June 2021
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for June were:
Turning Around by Yash Seyedbagheri
This is Definitely the Last Time by H.A. Piacentino
Father’s Day Again by Bob Thurber
Dot to Dot by Laura Dobson
The winner of the June 2021 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Father’s Day Again
Bob’s story feels deeply vulnerable and is delivered with his usual evocative style, painting a thousand words’ worth of picture with each short phrase.