The story of the week for June 15 to 19 is…
Catching Up With a Friend by Connell Wayne Regner
I definitely didn’t see the twist in this story coming, so it hit me hard. Strong work from a regular contributor.
CONNELL WAYNE REGNER: Catching Up With a Friend
A friend came back from six months away and we talked about his European adventures.
Then he asked me about my fiancée and our wedding plans.
I happily told him the wedding was on track, and for a brief moment it felt great
as I pretended she was still alive.
Read more from Connell at paragraphplanet, home.wtd-magazine.com and postcardshorts.com.
SABINE MONN: Stray Dog
Licking crumbs between high heels and cobblestones, seeing buttery flakes on ankle, her shriek demands his defensive stare.
Eye to eye, his pink tongue retreats behind bared fangs. He holds his hot breath, cringing backwards.
Her sudden smile underlines her offering: wafting smell of croissant. Eyes unlock, echoing clicking disappears.
Sabine Monn, a music and movement educator who grew up in Europe, loves to play with children, especially when she forgets her role as a mother, passionately creating within the flow of now and exchanging with others.
DENNY E MARSHALL: Fishing
Ed is fishing a few miles off the coast of Florida. Suddenly a U.F.O. appears above him.
A thin wire rope descends from the flying saucer and wraps around Ed and pulls him up.
Moments later, he is thrown back into the ocean as he hears someone say, “Too small.”
Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published, some recently. See more dennymarshall.com.
VIRGINIO ROTA: The Lie
“My favourite whisky’s Chivas Regal,” the man said proudly.
The bartender silently poured him a glass. The man swallowed it. “Great taste!” he said, and went away.
As usual, the bartender quickly refilled the bottle with a cheaper whisky, and reflected on how easy it is to make someone happy.
Virginio is an Italian student of the English language. He likes writing stories in English and sometimes playing with rhymes.
KENNY A CHAFFIN: In Order To Make My Life Complete
I want tiny singers like Mothra had.
They would accompany me invisibly and appear at crucial moments in my life, with their haunting angelic voices twining together, lifting to the heavens, bringing down a meteoric rain of fire and stone upon my enemies, and then gently singing me to sleep.
Kenny A. Chaffin writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and has published in a variety of magazines. He grew up in southern Oklahoma and now lives in Denver, CO, where he works hard to make enough of a living to support two cats, numerous wild birds, and a bevy of squirrels.
CRYSTAL MOORE: By the Looks of Things
Without a whimper or a whine, the poodle sits through the primping and preening. Clip, snip go the nails. Fluff, puff goes the hair.
At last, the pooch’s owner puts down the brush.
“Let’s win this thing,” she says, then smiles at the dog. “Wish you could watch me compete.”
Crystal Moore likes to write short fiction and drink tall glasses of chocolate milk.
STORY OF THE WEEK: June 13
The story of the week for June 8 to 12 is…
These Things Are Yours by Bob Thurber
What an amazing encapsulation of a character’s back story and relationships in a single moment, a single act. Another great contribution from Mr. Thurber.
JOANNA M WESTON: Cold Feet?
My paper boats—one pink, one yellow—float in sunlight. I stand calf-deep in the lake, camera in hand.
A flood of ice cold water pours into my right boot. Do I give up and go home?
No. My laughter echoes across the lake: after all I’m seventy-five years old.
Joanna M. Weston is married with two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and two derelict hen-houses. Her middle-reader, Those Blue Shoes, was published by Clarity House Press. She has also published a book of poetry, A Summer Father, through Frontenac House of Calgary, and an eBook, The Willow Tree Girl, through her blog.
JANE DANFORTH: Red Dress
There is a red dress that hangs in my closet. I have touched it twice since last June.
Once, putting it atop the “throw away” clothes pile in the laundry room.
Twice, picking it back up when I realized my mother would ask why the top button is ripped off.
Jane Danforth is a high school junior who writes for the purpose of blissful procrastination.