The story of the week for December 31 to January 4 is…
Hunting Nightmares by Ran Walker
UNA NINA NINE: Twitter in the Village
Their mud hut was shaded by thick plantain and banana trees.
It was still raining heavily. There were no mosquitoes so the windows were open; free air-conditioning.
She slept soundly on her bamboo mattress.
The town crier’s talking drum was muffled, so she didn’t hear she was the new widow.
Una Nina Nine plays life with her husband and family in Nigeria but is yet to meet “that” prince.
RAN WALKER: Hunting Nightmares
Two unexpected things happened after Timmy killed the monster under his bed: (1) he ate it (and rather enjoyed it), and (2) he took to hunting the monsters under the beds of other neighborhood kids. After all, someone had to do it—and he’d already developed a rather insatiable appetite.
Ran Walker is the author of sixteen books. He serves on the creative writing faculty of Hampton University in Virginia.
KIM FAVORS: After Dark, She’s Dawn
Green eyes, curly red hair, Southern dialects and harried husbands.
Between casting calls for cougar roles, Dawn practices her craft at Oklahoma’s small town taverns. Bartenders comp her drinks as bouncers keep lookout for the wives.
“Everyone has a backstory, Sugar. And the night’s just getting started.”
The show begins.
Kim Favors lives on California’s coast with dogchild Jesse.
GRAHAM SCOTT: Boxing Day
Her boys play outside with an old Nerf ball. As she leads him to the broken furnace, he sees her tiny house has a cross, but no gifts, no tree. He sympathizes; he’s had a rough year, too.
She sees him glancing and is grateful they have nothing to steal.
Graham Robert Scott teaches writing at a university in north Texas. His stories have appeared in Barrelhouse Online, Nature, and Blink-Ink. See more at hemicyon.wordpress.com.
CANDACE KUBINEC: Lost Memories of a Generation
She was a memorist, holding onto the collective experiences of an entire generation.
We all depended on her for our memories—faces in scrapbooks, grandma’s favourite recipes, names of distant relatives.
On the day she died, all she remembered faded away and her family was left with only a void.
Candace Kubinec posts her stories at storydribbles.wordpress.com and her poetry at rhymeswithbug.com.
RON. LAVALETTE: Honeymoon
They’d only been married since the weekend, but she could readily identify his writer’s block.
She suggested that he might at least try to write something short, perhaps about a convicted criminal in his cell, awaiting the executioner’s call.
“Nah,” he replied. “I’ve never really been that much into autobiography.”
Ron. Lavalette has been widely published in both print and pixel forms. His first chapbook is now available from Finishing Line Press, and a reasonable sample of his published works can be found at EGGS OVER TOKYO.
JUSTIN DEMING: Grandpa Al
Grandpa Al radioed coordinates in the Korean War.
He was quiet, loved his Yankees, and sipped O’Doul’s in the summertime.
He had a fake leg and owned a ukulele, too—
a sweet, beautiful instrument boxed up in his basement.
I can see him now.
He’s smiling. Sipping. Strumming and plucking.
Justin Deming lives and teaches in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
ALISON CARROLL: Monster’s Christmas
He’d nibbled fingertips and the occasional toe, but he awoke Christmas morning to an entire arm dangling over the bed.
Yes! There was a Santa Claus.
But as the monster relished the impending feast, fit for the most discerning palate, little Bobby snorted and rolled over, dashing his Christmas dreams.
Because Alison and every sleeping child knows that only dangling arms and legs are fair game for the monster under the bed.
JOANNA FRIEDMAN: Rock and Roll, Baby
Pulse. Drumbeat. Baby’s kicks. The guitar screams.
Blankets laid on the lawn. Lights dim.
Music swells in waves. Rhythmic: pushing, shoving, pounding on the ground. A night of screamo. Moshing. An owl swoops silently from the rafters. The bassist strikes a chord.
My baby’s song begins.
Joanna Friedman’s fiction and poetry has appeared in a couple of anthologies and on-line publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband, twin girls, and pug dog, Blue. Follow her on Twitter or her website.