“What would you like for your birthday, honey?”
“Nothing.”
It took me decades to comprehensively understand her answer.
“Get off your butt, use your imagination, innovate, and window shop until you find a gift, an awe-inspiring and unusual gift, to surprise and delight me.”
This is the meaning of “nothing.”
Barry O’Farrell is an actor living in Brisbane, Australia. Barry’s stories may also be found in Cyclamens & Swords, A Story In 100 Words, and of course here at 50-Word Stories.
The boys were moody and restless. They’d been cooped up too long. Today, like the days before, they had worked hard. Now, tired and sore, they pleaded, “Please, Father, can we go out tonight?”
“No, sons, not tonight,” he replied. “Soon though. The dove just returned with an olive branch.”
Matthew is a retired computer systems programmer who has produced over 200 books for Project Gutenberg.
The Story of the Week for April 6 to 10 is…
Smaller Than You by Mark Farley
What can I say? Parallel and metaphor are easy paths to my heart (among, let’s be honest, many other literary soft spots). Strong writing, Mark.
I set the small slide down and settled nearby.
She climbed, slid down, climbed, slid again.
On her fourth climb, she stopped and said, “Thank you, Mama.”
A first; I had not expected spontaneous gratitude to appear as a cognitive milestone, or to bring me to tears when it did.
Patrice St. James writes creative nonfiction. She is from California, but lives in Massachusetts with her husband and daughter, where she enjoys most of the seasons.
John Mill went up the hill on a snowy morning. Up he walked till he reached the top where the black monolith stood still.
John Mill could not believe his eyes. The elders had once walked the land.
Neither his mind nor his body shall tell. His hat maybe will.
Arnaud Moussart teaches English in a French University. He cannot read long books anymore. He writes songs for a rock band, LadyH, and short articles dealing with science fiction and the real world.
Her eyes are like shimmering pools of living fire.
I lean closer and feel their heat radiating against my cheek.
Mesmerized, I stare into her widened pupils, flames flickering in ever increasing circles.
I’m lost, I’m lost; I’m falling in.
“They look painful,” I say.
“Painful and infectious,” she replies.
Alan is a primary school teacher working in south London. He doesn’t like where he works.
“Aunt Trudy’s going to become a scarlet woman,” Jen announced.
Her mother was shocked. “Why would you say such an awful thing?”
“She told me she’s knitting a sweater and I saw her bagful of red yarn.”
“Oh, Jennifer, you shouldn’t judge a person by the color of her skein.”
John H. Dromey has had short fiction published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Stupefying Stories Showcase, and elsewhere.
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month. (Editor’s Note: By mistake, I included a March story, “Paradise”, in the list of February finalists, and left out “Tripping” by Caitlin McGill. To rectify the mistake, I am including Tripping in the list of March finalists.)
The finalists for March were:
Tripping by Caitlin McGill (see note above)
Striking Twice by Gina Lyle
On Fire by MJ Marggraff
Be Okay by Corey Niles
The winner of the March 2015 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Striking Twice
Congratulations, Gina! What a creative, unique, and beautiful story.
Boss: Stop whatever it is you’re doing. I need you to do something urgent for me.
Employee: Okay.
Job done. Emailed to boss.
Boss: Excellent! You did a great job!
Boss forwards email to higher boss.
Higher Boss: Excellent! You did a great job! What would I do without you?
Agnes is a regular employee who saves money to travel places one at a time. Twenty countries and counting!
My friend is a foot taller than me. That makes him the leader.
“They taste like butter,” he says, showing me ants emerging from their nest. “Try one.”
I grasp an ant as it takes its first view of daylight. I watch it struggle, small, helpless and lost in indecision.
Mark Farley was raised in Africa. He now lives in Swindon, UK, dividing his time between web page development, opera singing, and blogging his random attempts at creative writing at mumbletoes.blogspot.co.uk.