There’s a steady hum of voices sprinkled with laughter coming from the recreation room of Happy Days Rest Home.
A new craze called “Write A Fifty-Word Story and Then Read It” has taken the residents by storm.
The winner gets an extra helping of soft-boiled eggs and prunes for breakfast.
Charlotte McElroy is an 80-year-old retired teacher. She is finally following her dream: writing! Thank you for giving her this opportunity.
Water cascaded over the lid and onto the grimy tiles. Lisa dabbled her shoes in the puddles as the tension in her shoulders ebbed.
Opening the door, she passed by the barista with barely a glance. “The phone is in the toilet. I warned that guy to keep it down.”
Sandra Ebejer lives in upstate New York with her husband, son, and two cats who haven’t figured out how to get along. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, BREVITY, and numerous publications on Medium. Read more of her work at sandraebejer.com.
A man trudged from his job in the service industry—the only work he could get—when a thug held him at gunpoint.
“Don’t shoot!” he begged.
The thug fired once… and felt seven rounds pierce his own chest.
“How…!?” he protested, dying.
“The name’s Cain,” the waiter replied miserably.
E.O. thinks there are probably some people in the world who should never be poked with a stick. Ever. Like gynecologists and postal employees.
“I’ll take my lunch later,” I told my head nurse.
I held Betty’s hand while her breathing slowed to almost nothing. Her family hadn’t visited in weeks.
“It’s okay. You can go now. He’s waiting for you.”
I smoothed her hair, and she relaxed as she took her last breath.
Catherine McAllister loves her work as an emergency room nurse and also enjoys teaching nursing students. She has two lovely daughters, three lively dogs, and a supportive husband. She writes in her free time.
Uncle Skip came in from wood-splitting with the ax lodged in his chest, hugely panicking. The kids yelled, “Pull it out!” But I didn’t, because he’d bleed out fast.
Drove ninety to the hospital.
The Trauma Team paused visibly when Skip said he was uninsured. Then they saved his life.
Todd Mercer of Grand Rapids, Michigan was nominated for Best of the Net in 2018. Recent work appears in Down in the Dirt, The Lake, and Praxis.
Sara dreamed she had been walking Tippy. Pulling up in a Rolls, an eccentric billionaire had stopped to offer one million dollars for him. The offer was declined.
Waking, she mused that five million plus substantial visitation rights would be just about as low as she’d be willing to go.
Phil Huffy writes at his kitchen table in Rochester NY. His work has appeared in nearly one hundred literary journals.
I’d meant to drive the hitchhiker all the way to Chicago, but she smelled bad, so I kicked her out as soon as we reached Lake Michigan. I was sorry I couldn’t take her home, but my fuel economy improved a lot without her body rolling around in the trunk.
Hannah Whiteoak doesn’t drive. She tweets microfiction at @HannahWhiteoak.
Nothing would stop the Spartan Soldier from delivering the message.
Parched, hungry, weak after days of trudging through the vastness of the desert, he reached the prison.
Moans. The shackled, defeated, would not look up as he freely needled through.
He froze. He saw himself,
disemboweled,
chained to a wheel.
Olympia is a wannabe pet owner and a student studying directing and producing TV. See more at olympia-christofinis.com.
They had one thing to do, no words to waste,
time flew, they labored, days fell away,
fragments landed at the edges of dreams where factory workers in hooded cloaks weaved memories into light,
wearing masks made from shadows, peeping through slits, breathing in, sighting targets, stringing bows,
aiming steadily.
Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.
Dedicated to the “50 Word Stories” group.
The story of the week for April 22 to 26 is…
Innuendo by Susan Gale Wickes