The Story of the Week for March 16 to 20 is…
On Fire by MJ Marggraff
I really like the mix of sweetness and edge from the two characters. I end up rooting for them even though I know they’ve done something wrong! Great character development.
MATTHEW F AMATI: A Well-Run Kingdom
The castle walls gleamed. Bright banners flapped in the stiff breeze. Armies of palace guards stood at attention. They denied all who approached an audience with the King.
“The King’s busy. And anyhow, the affairs of the kingdom run smoothly.”
Inside, the throne room was empty, and covered in dust.
Matthew F. Amati writes about software for a living. Two of his stories are forthcoming in Flash Fiction Online.
PETRA EXLEY: Day of Rest
Sunday afternoons are the worst.
The stillness brings flashbacks of the tv dinner / hard eyes / swirling cig smoke combo. Suffocation.
I keep rolling. Stepping through the trees. Logging miles on the decades between me and that.
When I finish it’s dark and heading into Monday. I’m still here; escaped again.
Petra lives, works, and writes in the Philadelphia area. She is in the process of publishing her first book. Her days are spent selling Real Estate, planning jaw-dropping travel itineraries, and awaiting the birth of her first grandchild. She has (and always will have) a little white dog. The current one is named Bindi.
CRYSTAL MOORE: Hairy Situation
I should’ve shaved my legs, I think as my neighbor invites me in. Or worn pants.
He smiles. “Care for a drink?”
“No, thanks,” I say. “Just the phone.” I avoid his gaze and pull my bathrobe tight.
Then I call my roommate and explain how I locked myself out.
Crystal Moore doesn’t like to reveal much about herself, which is why she won’t be found working the pole at a strip club. However, she can be found dividing her time between the realm of her imagination and North Carolina’s Coastal Plain region. Her publication credits include humorous greeting card copy, children’s short stories, and flash fiction.
LIZ LAMBSON: Who Cares, Mom
“I want to see it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She frowned at the sticky red placenta in the blue plastic pan.
Could the newborn see it? He eyed the afterbirth and sighed a breath of apathy towards his now-lifeless life-support.
She couldn’t know he’d eventually feel the same about her.
Liz Lambson is a Jane of all trades who might write you a song about painting with cross-stitched sheet music propped on a hand-carved wooden stand. She does things like this when she’s not watching her kids.
MJ MARGGRAFF: On Fire
Sirens scream while lights, like fireworks of red and white, slice at twinkling skies. Engines slow, firemen race inside for the old couple.
Blanket-wrapped, on the street, they whisper: “Think they’ll figure it out?”
The Chief sadly reports: “The cause is under investigation.”
They nod, squeezing closer, bedroom sheets smoldering.
MJ is an aviator, author, and speaker on ways risk and fear can work to our advantage to dream and explore. She is preparing for suborbital space flight.
RACHEL PETERS: A Paradox
They’re telling the truth when they say that life is short. I could see that early on.
But they don’t tell you that life is also very long. It’s long enough to start over, and it’s an eternity to live with the person you’ve become.
Survival isn’t what you’d think.
Rachel Peters is a writer, teacher, and swimming pool operator who lives in Richmond, VA, with her husband and their dog, who looks like he might be part chow and part lab. Her work has been published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology and is forthcoming in Boston Literary Magazine.
SARAH HENRY: After Life
The girl waved her hand, a little flick of a wave, but I still knew her words mattered very much, and so I listened.
Here, she didn’t understand where people go when they die.
So many beliefs, I began to explain.
Instead I closed my eyes and saw the sun.
Sarah Henry is a teacher. She also doesn’t know what happens after life, and doesn’t care to think about it very much.
MARKO TRIVUNCEVIC: The Evolution
Burdock-boy was always here, surrounding himself with interesting and artistic people to mimic. Always there, always grey. First to please, first to laugh, first to exploit.
Quietly I entered the house, and I saw him with my wife.
The bur-boy has become a parasite-man. And the only good parasite is…
Marko Trivuncevic is a writer, poet, and short movie director from Serbia. Currently he’s working on a novel, writing a script for a miniseries, and generally enjoying life.
STORY OF THE WEEK: March 14
The Story of the Week for March 9 to 13 is…
Striking Twice by Gina Lyle.
Whimsical poetry hits a soft place in my heart, and Gina did a great job with this piece that reads like prose but feels like a poem.