MICHELLE DINNICK: The Gingerbread House

Amusing, Submissions, ,

The dismembered gingerbread house invades our house every year, and oh how I dread its arrival.

Pieces requiring assembly, that do not ever stay where they are supposed to stay, no matter how much icing is applied.

Now there is a Haunted House and an Easter Cottage.

Oh, the humanity!

Michelle is a contributing author in the most recent Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Canada. Her writing has won several awards, and appeared in The Globe and Mail and a number of local magazines and newspapers in Alliston and Barrie. She has a monthly series in the Focus 50 + Newspaper based on her short story “Lightning Strikers.” You can find her online at michelledinnick.com.

KEVIN P MICHAELS: Waiting

Artistic, Submissions, ,

It’s always the same, every single time.

A dark ominous shape follows me through endless hallways.

I go left, it’s there; I go right, it’s there.

I go faster, it gets closer.

Finally I’m cornered. It reaches out and…

I wake up, still on death row, waiting to be executed.

Kevin P. Michaels lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he works by day and writes at night, honing his skills to become a better writer.

RONALD GUELL: I Still Love That Cereal

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

My earliest memory of using scissors was to mail in a coupon for a baking soda-powered submarine. The dotted lines looked easy, but it took me half the day. I clipped and clipped until each edge hugged the dots perfectly.

Now that I think of it, my psychiatrist is right.

Ronald Guell wrote this story.

ALEX MARKOVICH: Inappropriate Behavior

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

“Wow! You’re one tough little lady.”

“I’m a black belt. And I’m not 16. I’m 22.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll drive you home, and we’ll just forget this ever happened. Nobody’d believe you anyway. I’m a powerful man in this community.”

“Not anymore. I’m a cop, and I’m wearing a wire.”

A long time ago, Alex married an 18-year-old.

JEAN LLOYD: Echoes of the Past

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

The last notes of the organ fade away.

In the old church, shadows dance in the candleglow, echoes of people from times gone by, coming back to me. I feel their presence.

The living drive away the dead as their grandchildren and great grandchildren dispel the moment.

Merry Christmas, Grandma!

Jean lives in Bath in the UK. She likes to use some of her own experiences in her story telling. Merry Christmas!

KAI GAITLEY: Life is Suite

Amusing, Submissions, ,

The weary traveller unburdened his luggage and looked to the receptionist for welcoming comfort.

“Sorry Sir, I can see your wife is heavily pregnant, but we are fully booked. I can only offer you our stable-themed suite outside, but we’ll waive the upgrade charge as a show of good faith.”

Kai Gaitley is an upbeat pessimist, a talkative loner and a devout existentialist.

JOHN FOWLER: Grief

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

We gathered in small, always changing groups.

Strangers, family, and friends.

Uncounted words filled the room with copies of the same conversation.

Regrets mingled with the pebbles of ordinary life, to gave rise to our victory cry. Hand-in-hand, we proclaimed, “Life still goes on.”

Thus we denied death his victory.

John Fowler served twenty years in the US Air Force before retiring
and starting a second career in the IT field. He is also a Lay Pastor
serving a small church near his home in Texas. His hobbies include
reading, golfing, writing, and now oil painting.

DAVID GALASSIE: Believe

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Despite what he’d been told, Billy Donaldson still believed. They just had to be wrong. Santa was real.

He fell to his bed, weeping into his pillow. Only the action figures on his shelf and his puppy heard the mournful cries.

But the rustling on the roof gave him pause.

David Galassie is a fruitcake enthusiast and a history buff. His blog, chronicling the history and foibles of his old hometown, is at menashabook.blogspot.com.

KAI GAITLEY: Performance^3

Submissions, , ,

Taking off her eponymous heels, Spanx, push-up bra, contoured make-up, doll-face lashes and hair extensions, she complained bitterly that he wasn’t honest with her, while, oblivious to irony, he admired his reflection in his favourite mirror, applauding his own insight on the importance of artistic integrity in the New West.

Kai Gaitley is an English student in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii who understands that an obvious reference is only obvious if you lived through Madchester too.