At 80, Gramp was unsteady on his feet. He didn’t want his nurse’s help, but waited ‘til she was gone, then stumbled to the bathroom.
He fell and broke his hip.
He died in the hospital two weeks later.
They say he died from pneumonia.
I say it was embarrassment.
Harry Demarest has had twenty of his 50-word stories and a few longer pieces published. This is a true story which happened to Harry’s grandfather in 1966.
Her blue eyes looked down into his brown ones. His brown hand grabbed her peach finger.
“So beautiful.”
They were complete opposites, but that didn’t matter to either of them. Perfect matches weren’t based on color: eyes, skin, hair. This was a perfect match.
“Welcome home,” said the foster mom.
Melanie Gabbard is a mother of four: one biological, three adopted from foster care. She won a short story competition with Writer’s Digest and wrote a short screenplay that was adapted for film.
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for March were:
Constellations by Jonathan Kosik
Mothering Sundae by Tamsin Seymour
The Feeling of Guilt Felt in Private by a Child by John Gabriel Adkins
Faster Than Life by James P. Spitznogle
My Father, the Strongman by Bob Thurber
The winner of the March 2017 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Constellations
Simply beautiful. Simply heartrendingly beautiful.
A beautiful flower, blooming for a season; radiant colour, my soul lifted. All things are fleeting, the fragile more so. Your short season over, you left us, transformed back into the loam, nourishing the earth as your love once nurtured me. Goodbye my daughter. Your time short; your existence profound.
Bill lives in Aberdeen Scotland. He tried to be good once. It didn’t take.
Dr. Toms receives a soil sample from planet Mars. Dr. Toms views the sample under a microscope.
At 5000X she sees hints of something different. She turns the magnification up to 20,000X.
Dr. Toms can see: it’s writing. The words say,
“If you can read this you are too close.“
Denny E. Marshall had had art, poetry, and fiction published, including fiction at Postcard Shorts. See more at dennymarshall.com.
An uncle told me TV laughter was dead people—It’s canned, he said. For years I couldn’t eat tuna, soup, or beans.
Until the bombs.
Now, canned food is all that’s left—hoarded in caves and holes. And let me tell you, no one’s laughing anymore. Not even the dead.
“Let’s skip school today,” Phil suggested.
“Don’t you have an important exam?” his friend asked.
“No biggie. It’s just something the guidance counselor thought up to help me pick a college major. I’ll call it in.”
“You can do that?”
“Sure. My phone’s smart enough for a simple app-titude test.”
John H. Dromey has had short fiction published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Crimson Streets, Stupefying Stories Showcase, and elsewhere.
Sometimes, when he was demanding, I longed for a life alone. Everything changed, though, when I realised I was losing him.
The end came quickly. He looked at me with pleading eyes. I held him and made soothing noises.
Then, two last wags of his tail, and he slipped away.
Jean lives in Bath, UK. She likes to send in an her meagre efforts each month and enjoys a good yarn.
The story of the week for March 27 to 31 is…
My Father, the Strongman by Bob Thurber
I’ve never seen another author build up character and backstory as efficiently and consistently as Bob Thurber. Another great piece.
Naturally, he insisted on digging his own grave. He barely had the strength. I brought wine. We ended up drinking it out of the bottle after he pushed the cork through with his thumb. Each time I chugged I watched that cork drifting around like a boat in a storm.
Over the years Bob Thurber’s work has received a long list of awards and prizes. His most recent book is a collection of brief stories titled “Nothing But Trouble.” His first novel, “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel,” was recently rereleased. Visit BobThurber.net.