The story of the week for April 22 to 26 is…
Innuendo by Susan Gale Wickes
ELIZABETH MOURA: Notre Dame
Mother watched the fire on TV. She took down my father’s flag case, crying and incoherent, and then, in her confusion and fear, she dropped the case. The glass shattered, and the case slid under the tv, under Notre Dame as it burned, the fire reflected in her empty eyes.
Elizabeth Moura lives in a converted distillery and works with elders. She has had poetry, flash fiction, or photographs published in The Heron’s Nest, Chrysanthemum, Atlas Poetica, Presence, Shamrock, Flash, Paragraph Planet, Flash Fiction Magazine, O:JA&L, and Occulum.
IAIN YOUNG: And Then There Were Four
Thousands of horsemen we once were, occupying an underappreciated metaphysical niche: the ceaseless minor pains, the unending annoyances. Seasonal allergies. Multiple choice tests. Paper cuts.
Separately, we lacked apocalyptic dread, but together…
Then came the consultants, wielding their Recommendations.
“Operational efficiencies?” we mused. “We have no rider by this name.”
Iain Young once applied to be one of the Four Horsemen. Then he found out you’re always on call. Forget that.
GERGELY: No, We Didn’t
No, we didn’t save his life, at least not for long, but he didn’t have to die in gasping panic with waning airflow through his cancerous larynx.
God gave him some time to say “sorry” and “thank you”.
Although he could not speak, I could see it in his eyes.
Gergely, a paramedic, is thankful to be able to sometimes see the spellbinding and wonderful moments of birth both to this world and to heaven.
SAMANTHA BALTZ: Ocean Breeze
Towel on the sand, she sits in a cross-legged position. She closes her eyes and focuses on the way the wind blows her hair softly across her face. Inhaling slowly, she holds her breath deep inside, musing that this may be the very last time she breathes the ocean breeze.
Samantha Baltz loves to share her stories and loves to hear the stories of others.
AERYN RUDEL: His True Name
He does his work under many pseudonyms. Sometimes he goes by cancer, or stroke, or heart attack; other times he’s called car accident, missing in action, or simply victim. No matter what he calls himself today, his true name is writ large and bold across each of our frail bodies.
Aeryn Rudel is a writer from Seattle, Washington. He is the author of the Acts of War novels published by Privateer Press, and his short fiction has appeared in The Arcanist, Factor Four Magazine, and Pseudopod, among others. Learn more about Aeryn’s work at rejectomancy.com or on Twitter.
ANDREW WALO: Won’t Be the Last
A bite on my hand woke me from my nap on the mouldy sofa. “We talked about this,” I said.
The spider slung one eye toward me. “Were you using it?”
It wasn’t my point, but he was right. Terry had a way of cutting through my BS.
“Carry on.”
Andrew Walo doesn’t really know what else to do. He might as well tell stories.
SUSAN GALE WICKES: Innuendo
You could set your watch by Old Man Haney’s trip to the mailbox. That’s how I knew something was wrong Thursday morning.
A sense of foreboding set in.
I was about to call 911 when I saw the widow Wilkins leaving his house.
But you didn’t hear that from me.
Susan Gale Wickes is from Indiana. In addition to writing poetry and short stories, she enjoys penning aphorisms and epigrams.
ERICA SCHAEF: Streetlights and the Stranger
There was something I wanted. The glow of home, or the bittersweet ache of fulfillment. Something not tangible.
The restaurant was crowded; too loud, too bright. I sat by the window, watching flurries dance around the white glowing orbs of streetlights.
A man stood to leave.
“Take me with you.”
Erica Schaef worked as an Operating Room nurse for ten years before becoming a stay-at-home parent. She lives in rural Tennessee with her family.
A-JAE WOODBERRY: Cobbler
On Grandma’s swaying porch, feet planted firmly on the top step, I feel her smile, hear her laugh, see her wrinkled eyes. Screen door swings on rusty hinges and I smell her famous peach cobbler.
“Well, come on,” mother says and I walk in, past the reverend with the urn.
A-Jae is a storytelling wordsmith who writes literary fiction and creative nonfiction, both the truth and otherwise. She is currently working on her first novel and an MFA at SF State. Find out more about her at ajaewoodberry.com.