LE-AN LAI LACABA: Imagination

Adventure, Submissions, , , , , , ,

It’s midnight and I still can’t sleep. I imagine lying down beside you, your arms around me. You slowly lull me to sleep, making me smile all the while. But in the end, it’s just an imagination. You’re still ten feet below me, sharing an eternal embrace with your mistress.

Le-an Lai Lacaba is an eighteen-year-old girl from Tacloban City, growing up in between everyone pressuring her to grownup and wanting to be a kid. She fills her blog, Imperfect is Beautiful, with her poems and short stories. Le-an has won multiple essay-writing contests in both local and regional competitions. She is studying for a B.A. in Communication Arts at the University of the Philippines, and struggling to become the writer she dreams of being.

CHRIS J FRIES: The Sound of Forgetting

Submissions, Touching, , ,

I heard your old rocker creak, and for a moment I forgot.

It might have been a stray breeze, or maybe just the cat brushing against it, an old habit from all the years he rubbed contentedly against your legs.

But in my heart it was you, home once again.

Chris Fries is a still-developing writer, slowly working to hone his craft. He is an engineer by vocation, a guitarist by avocation, and a writer by compulsion. So far, his blog has been his primary outlet for his quasi-creative meanderings.

JEFF SWITT: The Note

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

The note, scrawled in haste, read “be back in a min.” It didn’t mention a stop sign unnoticed or thumbs on the text pad. It didn’t say I would never again see your smile or taste your lips or feel your breath or share our silly dreams.

You didn’t know.

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 at Dogzplot, Boston Literary Review, Flash Fiction World, 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.

CHAD BENJAMIN SMITH: Closing Time

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

She removed her shoes. She tossed her coat to the couch. With a crooked gait, she made her way through the small apartment swaying from side to side, just as she did on her lonely walk home in the early hours.

From outside in the darkness, I watched and waited.

Fifty-word stories appeal to Chad Benjamin Smith because he is impatient and has a short attention span. Admittedly, Chad Benjamin Smith has more flaws than a short third-person bio can fit. He readily jumps at the opportunity to flaunt his shortcomings and embrace his negative qualities.

DEBBI ANTEBI: Not I-nterested

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

She starts to count the number of times her date uses the word “I”.

Thirteen, fourteen…

She doesn’t care about how many languages he knows or how he graduated cum laude from college.

Fifteen, sixteen…

“Let’s call it a night,” she finally blurts out, and hears him protest, “But I…!”

Debbi Antebi (@debbisland) lives in Istanbul, Turkey, and blogs
at debbiantebi.com.

CONNELL WAYNE REGNER : Easter

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Finding easy ways to explain words and concepts was what she did best, although when she explained Jesus, the cross, burial, and rising from the dead, one of her students looked anxious: “You mean like a zombie?”

With no simple explanation she pondered and slowly said, “…Yes. Something like that.”

Connell wrote this based on a true story from an ESL teacher.

KRYSTYNA FEDOSEJEVS: Easter Bunny

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Abby cried at Easter as a child, watching the family across the street. Grownups hid sweets around their property. Children searched. “Easter egg hunt” it was called.

Such a silly custom, Abby’s mother said.

As an adult, Abby visited her married sister, becoming the Easter bunny for nieces and nephews.

Krystyna writes poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. She delights neighbourhood cats with her singing.

GARY ZENKER: Incomplete Set

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

So she did. Blood surged into the air, splattering everything with
Rorschach patterns some detective would fail to analyze.

She pocketed the knife. No sense leaving it behind. Having an incomplete knife set would really drive her crazy.

JOEY TO: Word Limit

Odd, Submissions, , ,

Blaine scratched his head as the monitor stared at him in mockery.

Reducing his word count to below the allowed limit was practically impossible.

After inappropriately utilizing inordinate-amounts-of-hyphens-and-caffeine, as if that would help, he submitted his work, confident that he would win something.

He didn’t.

 Joey wasn’t interested in writing while at school but has been writing on his own in recent years, mostly to amuse himself. He has been published at The Story Shack and Needle In The Hay. He also likes roast cows.

LINDA NATHANIEL: Animal Logic

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

James believes that animals don’t think ahead and simply allow things to happen.

Although…

Certain neighborhood dogs do seem to meet up at the same place at the same time each day.  Their sheer punctuality has made James question as to whether he may be barking up the wrong tree.

Linda Nathaniel is a teacher from Sydney, Australia, who has had poems published in both Hemispheres and seen her play go from page-to-stage.