The story of the week for July 7 to 11 is…
The Silent Companion by Estelle Bardot
NEWS: Submissions moving to email-only
Effective immediately, I will only be accepting submissions sent via email to tim@fiftywordstories.com.
I just discovered that since the start of June, almost 100 submissions have been routed into my spam folder. I believe the ones going to spam all came through the form on the website. There must have been some update to the plugin that changed the way the form delivered the submissions to my email inbox, and my email provider isn’t very happy with it.
All of the newly discovered stories will be moved into the review queue and will be read and considered. This may cause some backlog for the next month or so as I work through them all.
To solve the spam issue, I’m going to remove the form from the Submissions page and require all submissions to be emailed me directly. Apologies for the inconvenience.
ALISON MOORE: July 4, 1876
Succulent bluefish flesh and raspberry fool remind me of the day we moored “Rain” and collected supper on the island. Father caught fish; we foraged raspberries. That night, we savored our bounty in white candlelight, not knowing who would be gutted and who would be plucked when the pirates attacked.
Alison Moore has spent much of her career in marketing. Now she’s writing fiction for fun. Her work can be found in Edible Boston and 50-Word Stories.
MARIA MILLER: Going Home
“I don’t like this place,” said my 100-year-old mom. She lives in an ARF. “I’m going to leave soon.”
“You’re lonely,” I responded. “I understand loneliness. Have you tried connecting with God?”
“Oh, don’t give me that mushy God talk.
I want to go home and be with my mother.”
A former journalist, Maria Miller is working on a novel while enjoying life in Spain.
ESTELLE BARDOT: The Silent Companion
My neighbours think my wife accompanies me on my walks. We stroll, my hand firmly supporting her figure, and together we bob our heads in cordial greeting.
“Not ones for chatter.”
At home, I dismantle the puppet and pop it in my cupboard, whilst Jemima screams incessantly in the basement.
Estelle Bardot is the pen name of a teen music student studying piano and composition. When she’s not composing, Estelle can be found lost in the pages of a book or writing poetry. She loves long walks on the beach (or anywhere, really), travelling, and is a sucker for anything dark academia aesthetic. Her work has been published in Under the Madness Magazine, Flora Fiction, Alternate Route, and Skipping Stones.
DEBORAH TAPPER: Ombrophobia
Red rain’s fallen countless times, macabre downpours ensanguined by desert dust or tiny algae, swept into the clouds and tumbling back to earth. Mere quirks of nature and climate rather than doom-laden portents, providing novelty filler for condescending newspapers and social media.
Until today, when the skies weep real blood.
Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.
JOANNE MERRIAM: Miners for Valles Marineris
Resigned to hunger and loose teeth, you have one second chance. Work hard, they said: your children will inherit a planet. The metal skin judders as it hits what passes for atmosphere here.
Where you land is littered with broken machine parts. Phobos waxes overhead. Home is a bright star.
If you like it, my bio might read: Joanne Merriam lives in Nova Scotia. Her writing has appeared in dozens of periodicals including Baltimore Review, Haikuniverse, and Pictura. She owns Upper Rubber Boot Books, known for the first English-language anthology of solarpunk, Sunvault. You can find her at joannemerriam.com.
SUSMITA RAMANI: In the Clearing Between Worlds
“Can I go somewhere with fairies?” I ask.
“Sorry,” the gnome says. “They don’t like your kind. The only alternate world available to you is a version of your own where no one invents the telephone, radio, movies, or computers.”
“What do they do?” I ask.
He laughs. “Everything else.”
Susmita Ramani is a writer and lawyer who has a novella coming out from Running Wild Press in 2026. She has two teenage daughters and performs improv with a group. She lives in Palo Alto, California.
JS O’KEEFE: Outwith the Garden
the town’s storyteller often used the word outwith
instead of outside
he claimed to have picked up
from Scottish and Yorkshire volunteers
now
the Garden’s shrinking around us
and there’s no other place left to live
we often say outwith among ourselves
concerning where
we’re going to find ourselves
soon
J.S. O’Keefe has published over three hundred short stories and poems in print and online literary magazines. See more at his website.
MADELEINE McDONALD: Death of a Delivery Cyclist
Time is money. Every second counts. He takes shortcuts, and shoots a red light at the big crossroads. He lies crushed, his insulated backpack spilling its contents over the tarmac. His bicycle wheel still spins. Someone dials 999.
Elsewhere in the city, impatient customers telephone the takeaway shop to complain.
Madeleine McDonald relishes the challenge of flash and micro fiction.