My lady and I are out of touch. We dine, surrounded by modern couples, each individual cradling a phone. Screens illuminate their faces while our candlelight wavers. Words flutter aimlessly, failing to land.
I ask, are we connected to the clouded world? She says, our connection is cloudy at best.
Matthew Gregory is a writer and filmmaker living in South Florida. He is currently working on his long-neglected Twitter account. For more visit Matthew-Gregory.com.
Camping! The family hadn’t done this since Arrow was a pup.
His tail wagged wildly as he sniffed every tree.
He was digging—something smelled exciting—when he saw his family was gone.
They’d be back. He was a good boy.
Tail still, Arrow waited by the road, forever loyal.
L.L. Madrid has an overactive imagination and a short attention span. Naturally, she writes flash and microfiction.
She cried secretly the day he shaved off his beard. Wives always know when there’s another woman.
He started growing it on their wedding day. His beard was their life together; 30 years, 2 children, a house, retirement plans.
But everything would change now Edward had decided to become Emily.
Lee Otto lives in Australia with her husband, 2 children and plethora of cats. At 60, after life as a technical writer, she became intrigued by flash fiction. This is her second attempt at having anything fictional published.
“Hey, we are gonna be forever. Okay?” the text read.
“Forever and a day more” was the reply.
Then they met for the first time. Or rather, their eyes did.
No sign of recognition, let alone love.
Relationships, they agreed, should best be left to the confines of virtual reality.
Sukanya Ghosh writes stories, stories about pain, because she has felt her portion of it and she intends to bleed it out through the tip of her pen.
They showed up at dusk on Mother’s Day with cake and ice cream. Three greasy-haired boys. The handsome one said, “Our own mothers are dead. We hope you don’t mind.”
Mind, she thought. What was there to mind? Death, cake, inconsolable boys?
“We want to celebrate your life in reverence.”
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” will be rereleased in May 2016. Visit BobThurber.net.
The story of the week for May 2 to 6 is…
Cryptic Quest by John H. Dromey
Exploration, mystery, and personal voyages are all compelling themes, well married in John’s story.
We’re the pathetic four of ’64; another dateless Friday night. Linda’s riding shotgun in Sherry’s Corvair with Dee and me crammed behind.
All have nothing better to do than visit some has-been celebrity just to watch T.V.
An older red haired greaser answered the door. Linda gulped, “Is Elvis home?”
Kathy Myers wrote a romance novel and loves the satisfaction of a good hard edit.
She rocks him slowly, gently in her arms, his tears still sparkling on hot, red cheeks, too exhausted to sleep.
Motherhood. When does she get to feel as if she’s doing this right?
He opens his eyes suddenly, sighs, then yawns sleepily.
At this moment, she is doing it perfectly.
Jackie was thrilled to have her first attempt at flash fiction published recently, and is hoping to keep up the momentum with more in the future, as well as working on her fourth novel and a travel journal.
Marian’s self-driving vehicle came home without her. Her smartphone was in the driver’s seat, but it wasn’t talking. The passenger seat was empty. The trunk was filled with farewell presents for her family and friends.
Her final text: I’m going in search of Judge Crater, B. Craven, and Amelia Earhart.
John H. Dromey has had short fiction published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Betty Fedora, Crimson Streets, and elsewhere.
The Bear grinned.
He was big, bad, and made the rules in his side of the forest. Nobody dared dissent.
The Eagle dominated the other side, but did so differently, regularly letting other animals decide who they wanted to rule.
The Bear chuckled. This year they were nominating a goose.
From the North West of England, Jon works in local government, with a background in Newspaper Journalism. He is currently enjoying experimenting with short forms of writing, likes to think he can do so creatively, and quite often has to delete everything he has written and start again.