The story of the week for September 28 to October 2 is…
Sea and Sky by William Shaw
Eerie, mysterious, atmospheric. I love this style of sci fi, and I’m impressed to see it accomplished in just 50 words.
MARK FARLEY: Still
There is nothing as beautiful as a sleeping baby.
Sarah’s eyelids were fast shut and I fancied I even saw them flutter slightly as if she were lost in a dream.
And when the nurse took that tiny red body away, I wondered if I would ever feel whole again.
Mark Farley is a little bit older than he ever expected to be.
WILLIAM SHAW: Sea and Sky
The Sea of Tranquility made an excellent graveyard.
You can visit it any time, rows of delicately carved stone standing silent in the Earthlight.
It was surprisingly easy to set it up. A digger. A priest. A few vacuum-grown flowers.
Some people still doubt it was ever built at all.
William Shaw is a student, editor and amateur journalist. He is slightly obsessed with the moon. You can find him on Tumblr, where he writes haiku poetry about Doctor Who.
AMY ROGERS: Hope
In their fresh, early days together, hope like tiny birds fluttered in her chest.
Years fly by. The birds grow silent and still, becoming tiny feathered bodies, stiff and cold, nesting below her heart.
She turns to him with eyes flat and hard like dull brown coins. She feels nothing.
Amy Rogers is an aspiring writer who lives in Tampa.
MATTHEW GREGORY: Academic Pest Control
“Rats roam the library at night,” I told the Dean. “Students bring in food, don’t clean up after themselves. There’s roaches, too.”
She asked for a solution.
“Get rid of them,” I responded.
“Obviously,” she said, then asked, “Rodents or students?”
“Both.”
“They’d still find a way into the building.”
Matthew Gregory is a writer and filmmaker whose short films “Alamogordo, NM,” “guarda innanzi che tu salti,” and “Joseph Jefferson Solves the Hunger Problem” have been featured in the 1:1 Super 8 Cinema Soirée. He has also worked as a writer and camera operator for the forthcoming film Papa. He lives in South Florida.
BOWEN DUNNAN: Fine Art
Adam and the work friends he’d dragged to the exhibition were silent in the Uber back to Manhattan. The four of them scrolled through the messages on their phones without looking up, and no one mentioned the photographs they had just seen, worried about seeming to have missed the point.
Bowen Dunnan lives and writes in New York City.
JESSICA RUTLAND: Dear [REDACTED]
I’m doing this for you. I have volunteered, and you’ve no idea, no clue about the wires or the cables that will be plugged into my [REDACTED]. And all for [REDACTED]. For [REDACTED] and honor and you. Most of all for you. I don’t really give a damn about [REDACTED].
Jessica Rutland graduated from the University of Texas. She recently had a story published in the Austin Chronicle, which she thought was pretty neat.
ROB GOSS: The Sarariman
Okamoto’s eyes fix on the silvery gravel covering the park where he sits on a bench, briefcase resting against one leg, can of beer in hand.
Commuters stream by into the station, central Tokyo bound. He won’t be joining them.
Like yesterday morning, and he still hasn’t told his wife.
Rob Goss is a Tokyo-based writer. See more at tokyofreelance.com.
CONNEL WAYNE REGNER: Searching for God
Jones looked for God in organised religions, in a bottle, and at fast food outlets. He searched high and low until, desperate, he finally found her where he thought she would never be.
Now God has to look for a better place to hide, or take out a restraining order.
Connell enjoys reworking and reimagining quaint comical expressions he has heard.
PHILIP LEIBFRIED: The Progeny
In Austria-Hungary in the late 19th century lived a young couple. One son demonstrated talent. His parents applied for his admission to an art school.
After viewing samples of his work, the schoolmaster said, “Your son shows great promise. I think his name will live forever, Herr and Frau Schicklgruber.”
Philip Leibfried resides in New York City’s vibrant East Village section in a studio apartment awash with books and videos. He has been published on fiction365.com, microhorror.com, short-story.me and TalesofOld.com. His favorite authors are Poe, Haggard, Kipling, Hearn, E. R. Burroughs, and R. E. Howard.