The story of the week for October 7 to 11 is…
Not Everyone Likes Cookies by Nissa Harlow
GAYLE BEVERIDGE-MARIEN: So There!
Although small in stature, she is a force to be reckoned with. An aggressive lobbyist for the homeless, her modus operandi is to be very much in the Minister’s face. He sees her enter the restaurant and flees through a backdoor exit, stumbling upon the cardboard tents of desperate souls.
Gayle Beveridge-Marien writes because she loves it. It is her radiant red-sky sunset, her budding spring flowers. It is bird song and a long walk in the bush. Gayle is a past winner of the Boroondara Literary Awards. Her work has appeared in Award Winning Australian Writing, The Umbrella’s Shade, Vegemite Whiskers and Mosaic.
ANGELA CARLTON: The Boy Who Became a Man
As a young nanny, I adored him quietly, this boy. When he turned twelve, I bought a drone so he could fly-fly-fly away from selfish parents. At fifteen, I taught him how to navigate black, winding roads.
At twenty-one, he came back to me, before the March rain, in bloom.
Angela Carlton wrote this story.
NISSA HARLOW: Not Everyone Likes Cookies
Death didn’t want him.
So he came back and lived under the porch.
Mostly, he’s quiet. I leave out food sometimes, but he never eats it.
The best part is how he drives away the solicitors and evangelists.
I just wish he didn’t scare away the little girls selling cookies.
Nissa Harlow lives in British Columbia, Canada where she dreams up strange stories and writes some of them down. She is the author of a number of novels and novellas, all embellished with a touch of the fantastic. You can find her online at nissaharlow.com.
KL MILL: A Mother Knows
“My goodness – triplets!” The woman clucked over the babies. “How do you tell them apart?” Hannah just smiled.
Later, as the girls splashed in their bath, Hannah noticed the ‘F’ on the bottom of Felicity’s foot was fading. She darkened it with marker, then blew raspberries on her daughter’s toes.
K. L. Mill is a voice actor, another profession that revolves around words. Most recently her work has been published by Black Hare Press, Atomic Carnival, and Crepuscular Magazine.
SARAH TYK: The Mists of Time
The fog swirled in thick clouds. She heard a familiar voice. It was fading into the mists. She had to act quickly before it was gone forever. “What’s the afterlife like?” she called. A pause. “Confusing,” came her father’s voice. Letting go, at a loss yet somehow comforted, she awoke.
Sarah Tyk is an aspiring writer from Iowa and host of The Interested Reader podcast. An astronomy major in college and grad school, her true love has always been writing. She writes what she can, when she can; usually during her toddler’s naptime.
PAMELA BLOOMFIELD: Triangle Pose
Your yoga teacher makes Triangle Pose look easy: raise your left hand, lean to the right, touch the floor. But after weeks of practice, you can barely reach your ankle.
“I just can’t get to the floor,” you sigh.
Your teacher’s unmoved. “I’ve been to the floor. There’s nothing there.”
Pamela Bloomfield is an independent consultant to governments and nonprofits. Her stories have appeared in Parhelion, Rivanna Review, Foliate Oak, Molecule, and other journals.
RÂNA CAMPBELL: Niles Discovers Nihilism
Day after day, Niles sits at the kitchen table contemplating the same glass of water. Is it half empty or half full? Niles realizes that once he’s peeled back all the perceptual layers, there is no glass. He just wishes his dad had finished the damn thing before he died.
Râna Campbell wrote this story.
HETTY MOSFORTH: Whales
You don’t see them. Not through your binoculars, not even when everybody else in the boat is yelling with surprise and delight. You don’t see them after searching and searching along the blue choppy water of the horizon. Still, your heart dances. It is enough to know they are there.
Hetty lives in Scotland and works in publishing. When not reading or writing, she likes exploring new places.
SAM HALL: Evening Dance
Raven sat on the branch of a strangler fig, staring sideways at the sun. The sun stared back. For a long while, neither moved. The world yawned. Then, gradually, the sun slunk down behind the hills.
“That’s what I thought,” said Raven, and took off, triumphant, into the gathering dusk.
Sam Hall is a writer from England. He lives in a cabin he built in an apple orchard, keeping bees and chasing after chickens.