The story of the week for November 6 to 10 is…
The Goldilocks Zone by Viv Burgess
VIV BURGESS: The Goldilocks Zone
Three new planets are identified orbiting a distant star. Humans take two generations to approach them, investigating for necessary colonisation.
The first planet is too hot.
The second is too cold.
The third looks just right.
Hugely excited they land to find
a lifeless wasteland
and seabeds awash with plastics.
Vivienne Burgess generally likes to write something vaguely humorous, but the news keeps getting in the way.
JOEY TO: Death’s Meal Deal
Amy dragged her feet and luggage. The 22-hour flight was a killer. She needed food. Bad.
Bright, colorful photos lined the overhead menu.
“How much damage for Burger Meal #4?” asked Amy.
Behind the counter, the skull in a black, hooded cloak grinned. “Four years.”
Amy sighed. “Upsize it, please.”
Joey always upsizes it. He can found at joeytoey.com.
BILL COX: An Invention Too Far
Sitting in his laboratory; the phone rings. Puzzled, Alexander Graham Bell picks up his prototype.
“Hello sir, we understand you recently had an accident. Have you thought about seeking compensation?”
Further calls follow for solar panels, magazine subscriptions, and double-glazing.
He does the world a favour and destroys the prototype.
Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. His dreams are long dead but his nightmares remain in robust health.
LAURA PEARSON: Leaving
The rooms were bare and cold, but if she squinted, she could almost see the life they’d planned. The baby, yawning and sucking. Him, sprawled on the sofa, the TV on. So much love she’d felt like bursting.
Where was it now?
She turned to leave; arms empty, heart full.
Laura Pearson is a writer of blog posts, novels and flash fiction. She lives in Leicestershire with her husband and two young children.
STORY OF THE MONTH: October 2017
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for October were:
The Things We Run From by Bill Cox
Grief’s Special Delivery by Connell Wayne Regner
Surprise by John Fowler
A Yarn With a Foreign Twist by Karla Dearsley
The winner of the October 2017 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Surprise
A little more overtly philosophical than the average story we see, but the thought is very well captured, easy to relate to and hard to stop thinking about.
MANINDER CHANA: Indifference
With the kind of longing that only comes with the fog of time, he began missing her today.
All the animosity gave way to bittersweet memories.
That’s when he realized that it had been neither love nor hate that killed their relationship. It was indifference.
He eyed his phone, briefly.
Maninder Chana is a critically acclaimed, award-winning writer and director based out of Toronto. He is also the author of a short story collection, Gunga Din Lite & Other Delights (of Lust and Comedy).
PAUL HOCK: An October Rain
It begins early evening, lasts twelve hours
Resolute, incessant, deliberate
Weighing down the coloured canopy still clinging to the branches
Seeping its way into covered porches, rusting brake drums, and the joints of old men
Cold, wet, relentless
I pull the quilt over my head, for just ten minutes more
Paul Hock wrote this story.
CANDACE KUBINEC: Give Thanks
Millicent finished a bowl of hot soup and left the church cafeteria. She didn’t complain as she limped slowly toward the park. She knew she was luckier than others.
In the tunnel, she wrapped her blanket more tightly around her shoulders and gave thanks before drifting off to dreamless sleep.
Candace Kubinec wrote this story.
ANDREW DUNN: Fatherhood
My memory’s broken, I’ve concluded. Storytellers return vividly to their pasts. I only remember remembering, the images grainier with each mental photocopy.
“Daddy!” the girl screams, nose crusted. She tugs my leg and flaps her arms.
I frantically shuffle though reams of fading prints. The ink smudges before it dries.
Andrew Dunn is a journalist and writer in Charlotte, N.C.