Every night I pick another sad movie that I’ve seen a million times before.
It helps with the loneliness.
Each day I get up and go to work and come home to my cat, Company, who never comes when I call.
It doesn’t count as crying when I watch them.
Raymond Sloan lives in Ireland. He has recently been published in 50-Word Stories, Every Day Fiction, Flash Fiction Magazine, Ariel Chart, 101 Words, The Drabble, Nanoism, Microfiction Monday Magazine, Blink-Ink and The Dribble Drabble Review.
“It’s no good!”
Agitated, she starts another one, ever so slightly twitching her head.
A sudden squeeze on her shoulder.
Big sigh. Breathe… breathe… ever so slowly.
Dark eyes smile victoriously.
She jerks a gaze at the Man in White.
Bars on the windows make eerie shadows on the walls.
Andrea Damic lives in Sydney, Australia. She has written two children’s picture books and is working on a novel.
She was unraveling in the bathtub when the walls came alive.
The shower handle was a silver bird grooming a faucet-shaped, one-eyed parrot. “Hello, Gorgeous,” it said.
Shampoo bottles giggled; the soap dish sang an aria.
The mirror cracked a smile. “Congratulations, you’ve survived three-hundred-and-sixty-seven days of self-quarantine!”
Everyone cheered.
Michelle Wilson’s words have appeared in Litro Magazine, The Drabble, 50-Word Stories, Literally Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, among others. She lives in Miami Beach, Florida. Sometimes, she can be found at https://medium.com/@wilsmk.
After the funeral, we started emptying her house.
“Do you remember her blackberry rhubarb crumble?”
“No.” I don’t.
“I remember. It was delicious.”
“I’m allergic to rhubarb. Gives me a rash.”
My sister looks away. “I’m sorry.” She’s not apologizing for being forgetful.
It’s easy to clear a stranger’s home.
Lucy McMahon is a student at the University of Bristol. She enjoys writing, painting, and baking.
I drop the bags on the floor thinking I’ll unpack later and slump down onto the couch. Feet up, shoes on, too tired to care. My exhausted mind starts to drift as my eyes close.
Suddenly, a hand hits my face.
“Daddy, I missed you. Will you play with me?”
Ben likes playing with his children, but sometimes it’s hard to get off the couch.
Once it soared, glorious.
Now watery eyes observe him.
He holds out his pipe. They played this game when it was new hatched – until his eyebrows were singed clean off.
There is a rumbling. A wispy flame ignites the tobacco, and a glimmer flickers in those eyes.
A dragon’s smile.
Brian Maycock lives in Scotland. He has work forthcoming in the British Fantasy Society’s Horizons magazine.
The story of the week for March 29 to April 2 is…
The Water Carrier by Fiona McKay
Wrapped in an unbreakable silence, she stares down at the silent, perfect child in her arms. Her face is drawn, wet with endless tears.
Fingers tracing his eyelids, translucent, indefatigably closed, pause, as with a sudden, unbearable clarity she realises the colour of his eyes will be for ever unknown.
Rachel Canwell is a teacher and book blogger, writing in secret for years but starting to put her head about the parapet!
“Every evening after dinner we’ll do some exercise,” Richard says. “What do you like?”
Graham shrugs. “Nothing.”
Richard knows this is Graham’s fifth foster home in as many months. “Let’s start with jogging.”
It takes months, but stamina builds; endorphins are released, words too, and Richard never leaves Graham’s side.
Laura Besley writes short fiction and squeezes her writing into the bookends of her day. She has lived in Holland, Germany, and Hong Kong, but now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea. Her flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers, was published in March 2020. She tweets at @laurabesley.
I did not look in the mirror and think, “I wonder if there’s a fancy apron I could sew that draws unwanted attention to my generous hips, and wait, wouldn’t it be cool if I could only find noncomplementary fabric colours and patterns in my stash?”
But here we are.
Sharon Gerger has recently retired and is cycling through all of her interests now that time has been set free in her life. Up next, learning to play the harmonica. Her writing appears here and there, in print and on the internet.