The story of the week for January 21 to 25 is…
Jam by Jo Withers
JAMES BURT: The World Hide-And-Seek Championships
The World Hide-and-Seek Championships happened only once. The losers were soon found in garages, trees, outbuildings.
As the months passed, interest ebbed: nobody search for the last competitors. A starved body was occasionally discovered in loft or sewer, but it mattered increasingly less that a winner might never be discovered.
James Burt is based in Brighton, England. He runs the Not for the Faint-Hearted writing workshop and has a website at orbific.com.
CHARLOTTE McELROY: War and Peace
“Ten cents a dance,” I said. He held me close.
We curled around the room like automatons performing selected sequences of human movement to Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Serenade,” oblivious to the sounds and smells of war. He, the prince. I, Cinderella in my glass slippers.
Stealing peace out of chaos.
JOHN H DROMEY: Getting a Handle on His Health
“Honey, shouldn’t you clear the driveway?”
“Not today. Doc recommended no more shoveling the white stuff for a while.”
“He was referring to forks and spoons and your carbohydrates intake! Potatoes, pasta, refined sugar…”
“Maybe so, but I’m taking no chances… There’s a shovel just your size in the attic.”
John H. Dromey’s short fiction has appeared in publications ranging from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine to Z-composition (June 2012 issue, online).
PHIL HUFFY: Storm Warning
Although labled as weatherproof, Tom’s notebook,
he learned,
was really only water resistant,
much like many watches, whose level
of protection is limited to soda spills,
brief splashes,
and like events.
From memory, he was able to reconstruct
just one of the day’s haiku, the rest being
lost beyond recall.
Phil Huffy stays up late reading Charles Dickens out loud.
JO WITHERS: Jam
After the diagnosis, mother spent the summer making jam. Gelatinous globules spattered kitchen surfaces while friends and family gathered, chatting, laughing, boiling, sugaring, and preserving memories.
When we married in spring, I laced her legacy through each layer of our cake.
As I sliced it, I could smell her smile.
Jo Withers writes poetry, flash, and shorts from her home in South Australia. She is also author of the middle-grade science-fiction adventure “5 Simple Steps to Saving Planet Earth.”
MARIE A BAILEY: The Astronomer’s Wife
You looked up into the night sky. Saw brilliant stars, expanding universe, mysterious galaxies, endless time. You looked down into my eyes. Saw faint light, boundaries of my soul, simpleness of my mind, the finity of my existence.
I linger beyond the border of light and dark, a black hole.
Marie A Bailey lives in the southeastern U.S. with a supportive husband and three cats. She has been published in The Disappointed Housewife as well as Florida’s Emerging Writers, An Anthology and America’s Emerging Writers, An Anthology of Fiction, Volume I, both by Z Publishing House. She blogs about writing, travel, knitting and cats at 1writeway.com.
SUDHA BALAGOPAL: Structural Collapse
She trembles as they’re ordered to evacuate, their home about to conflagrate. Silent, Sam stuffs his car with his clothes, books, and computers. Heartbroken, she packs her vehicle with teapot, blankets, and comforting pillow. Neither of them takes the wedding album, which incinerates, and becomes, like their relationship, a memory.
Sudha Balagopal’s short fiction appears in numerous publications including Wigleaf, Fictive Dream, Cabinet of Heed, Jellyfish Review and New World Writing. She is the author of a novel, A New Dawn. See more at sudhabalagopal.com.
HENRY BLADON: Liver and Onion
Frying the onions had been easy.
Without any bother, she watched as the meat in the pain turned from red to a shade of brown. So eating the liver wasn’t going to pose her any problems.
It was cutting it out of his abdomen that had been the hard part.
Henry lives in Somerset in the UK. One day he might buy a train set.
2018 Story of the Year Winner
The winner of the 2018 Story of the Year, along with the $50 prize and enshrinement in the Hall of Fame, is:
The Summer of Sweet Mary (circa 1972) by Bob Thurber
For the first time, 50WS has a two-time story of the year winner. It’s not surprising that Bob Thurber was the one to do it. His run of work this year was truly exceptional, earning repeated honours despite the increasing volume and quality of submissions we’ve been receiving month after month.
Honourable mentions to The Art of Disappearing by Patrick Mc Loughlin and Dependency by Carrie Backer, two more excellent stories that made it very difficult to choose the winner.