She had waited patiently. He didn’t want a relationship.
Returning to the bar, she heard the taunt from his friends: “Kiss her!” He hesitated as he leaned in, lips touching hers.
She felt herself falling into a chasm, melting down its walls.
Thirty years later, he is still kissing her.
Alison likes to write. She is celebrating her thirtieth anniversary, still kissing the man above.
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for September were:
One Job From Retirement by Guy Preston
Toothbrush, Toothbrush, Toothbrush by Kenneth Hamner
The Missing Wallet by Katya Duft
One Night Stand by Pat Campbell
The winner of the September 2015 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
One Job From Retirement
The build up of this story is very well executed, and the moment of understanding brings on a flood of emotions. Guy did an excellent job of creating a unique concept and conveying it to the reader.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.