“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.
Out of the car before it’s parked, she walks well ahead of him into the emergency and trauma center. They are shown to their boy’s cubicle. She strokes her son’s hand, says mother is here.
Watching from a distance, he recalls another night, sixteen years earlier: mother and newborn, alone.
Deborah Davis writes short fiction and poetry in frigid Michigan, waiting patiently for gardening season.
The pink ball curled into the gutter again, as if it had ached with sorrow from their time apart. The group watched with pity as she turned around, revealing a smile.
Her walk back was the swagger of one who had bowled their twelfth strike. “I didn’t fall!” she said.
Marcus Benjamin Ray Bradley works at the University of Kentucky. He grew up in Perryville and now lives in Versailles, KY, with his wife and daughters. Other work is forthcoming in the pages of Chiron Review.
Of all the despots, megalomaniacs and common or garden dictators, Fluffy was the least objectionable. Her demands were few: a little salmon here, a subservient bow there, and as an afterthought, the total and complete dominance of the Human race.
It was for their own good, after all, wasn’t it?
David is a creative writing student and recently won two flash fiction competitions back to back. He’s rather pleased with himself.
The first of each month, no matter where she was in the world, she received the call.
“White rabbits,” he’d say. “You live another month.”
The police couldn’t help.
Three months after her 34th birthday the call didn’t come.
He never called again.
It changed her. Now she’d never know.
George Hopkin puts words and spaces together and hopes like hell they entertain or inform. If they both entertain and inform, he thinks that’d be just fantastic, thank you very much.
The Story of the Week for March 30 to April 3 is…
Note Left on a Car in a Grocery Store Parking Lot by Cynthia Franks
Cynthia found a new and creative way to make use of the 50-word format, and developed a really strong character and plot. Great piece.
He gives pieces of his heart away with no more thought than he would give to handing out nondescript business cards. After a while he almost forgets the value of what he’s giving away.
Only when the last piece is gone does he realize there’s no way to reorder more.
Daniel Slaten has a large supply of business cards but can never find one when he really needs it.