Funny story. On a train ride last week, saw this lady with a big, ugly boil on her hand, kind of oozing. Cruel people left her seat untouched. My feet were killing me. Long story short, the doctor says my boil won’t be that bad.
Gee, finished your cake? Handmade!
Indu Pillai delights in all kinds of stories, written and unwritten. During the day she works in her design studio.
Wandering, the soldier comes across a gutshot man propped against a wall. He wonders if it was his bullet.
Jets fly overhead, heard but not seen.
He sits beside his enemy and offers a cigarette. One puff, and a shared smile.
Dawn comes an hour early.
I love you, mom.
Phillip Owens is a rookie EMT, eventual nurse, and aspiring writer.
The time had come for growing old together. She welcomed it with no regret, foreseeing tranquil days of tales retold, of common memories.
But he has lost the early days they shared. He wanders without her in a shadowy past.
Alone she cares for him; alone he lives on unaware.
Catherine Mathews is a State Department retiree formerly stationed overseas in Paris, Rome, Tel Aviv, Athens, Frankfurt, and Istanbul. She is now living in Northern Virginia and writing about her life.
Boats hit the sand, and the war kicks off.
Screams and shots fill the air. Bullet and bombs ravage the land.
The soldier does his duty. Soon he loses count of the bodies. He sees glory in all its horror, and tastes vomit.
Day becomes night, and then day again.
Phillip Owens is a rookie EMT, eventual nurse, and aspiring writer.
Shabby chic walks in my direction. Panhandler trash. I shouldn’t make eye contact. Do I have something smaller than a twenty? My eyes meet hers. Her mouth moves to speak. I cringe.
“G’mornin’,” she offers and passes.
I pull a bill from my pocket and turn, but she is gone.
Jeff Switt is a retired advertising agency guy who loves writing flash fiction, some days to curb his angst, other days to fuel it. His words have been featured online at Dogzplot, Boston Literary Magazine, Nailpolish Stories, 50-Word Stories, 100 Word Story, A Story In 100 Words, 101 Word Stories, and Shotgun Honey, and have appeared at lots of places that take whatever you send in.
His latest venture, A Story in Three Paragraphs, is at jeffswitt.wordpress.com/about/.
Orders come in, and ships go out.
A soldier looks around him, and grits his teeth. He checks his rifle one more time.
The heat is incredible. Salt is in the air.
Most of us will die–if we win.
He thinks of his mother.
Landfall in an hour.
Phillip Owens is a rookie EMT, eventual nurse, and aspiring writer.
Sarah stared at the hamster. “Mom, where’s Poppy?”
“Right there, sweetheart.” Mom hoped Sarah couldn’t tell the
difference. Old Poppy had died and she’d replaced him with a
lookalike.
“But it’s much smaller.”
“Maybe he’s lost weight.”
Sarah mulled it over. “Overnight? I wish Poppy could tell you his secret.”
Sylvia Heike lives in Finland and loves her rabbits, even when they nibble on her books. She writes poetry and flash fiction and is
working on her novel. Check out her website at www.sylviaheike.com.
The Soviets go dark the moment our forces make landfall.
A day passes. Nothing.
Finally, the inevitable appears on every screen.
A briefcase of codes is opened. Somewhere, missiles are given wings.
The room is numb.
In one motion, I’ve outdone Hitler, Stalin, and the Devil too.
God forgive me.
Phillip Owens is a rookie EMT, eventual nurse, and aspiring writer.
The day the little flat screen in the kitchen blew up, Heidi and Jim Colton knew they were in trouble. They listened to the loud hiss of static and watched the frantic swirling of tiny snowflakes blanketing the screen.
For the first time in years, they would have to speak.
Recently retired, Marian Brooks has begun to write some short fiction. Her work has appeared in Word Riot, Slice, The Short Humour Site, The Linnet’s Wings and others.
Now we wait. Thought hangs heavy in the air.
The Cold War is over, replaced by our every fear fulfilled.
Generals talk about casualty figures as if they were just numbers.
Advisors advise me to rally the people.
Men like us wield the power of Gods to settle mortal disputes.
Phillip Owens is a rookie EMT, eventual nurse, and aspiring writer.