Tag Archives: Bob Thurber

BOB THURBER: Why I can’t go home again

Artistic, Submissions, ,

I was born in a place called Hopelessville, which is a particular state of mind, not an actual geographical location. It’s sort of a spiritual town, or, to be emotionally precise, a dispirited wasteland where deeply disheartened and severely disturbed residents exhaust their loveless lives.

I abandoned it long ago.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and four collections of short fiction. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Final Lesson

Artistic, Submissions, ,

I asked how I would know and he said by listening, which is not the same as standing still and shielding oneself in silence while practicing acts of self-discipline, but actively living and listening for a voice that sounds like no one else saying something you’ve never heard said before.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and four collections of short fiction. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Company Picnic

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Their spouses’ corporations had merged.

Wow, she said, blinking.

How embarrassing is this, he said.

I’m having flashbacks, she whispered.

He smiled shyly.

Remember falling, she said, into one another’s embrace? Remember holding on for dear life?

Youthful mistakes, he sighed.

Perhaps it’s time we made them again, she said.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: The Alienators

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

The eyewitnesses were children. Two. An eight-year-old boy and his ten-year-old sister.

They heard and saw more than they could comprehend.

Why was daddy so angry? Why did they have to call this new woman “mommy?”

They missed their grandmother. Why did “mommy” get to decide who they could love?

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Shelter from the Storm

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

In my teens, when it wasn’t safe to go home after school, I’d hide out in the library.

To fool the librarians into thinking I belonged there, I flipped through books and magazines.

In this way I slipped into an intimacy with words from which I have yet to recover.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Early Morning Hike (Another Misadventure of the Broken Boys)

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

On the slope to the river a deer leapt across their path. Barely ten feet in front. Everyone froze. A big buck. Graceful, nimble, terrifyingly quick.

Some of the boys lost their breath. They had all seen. Yet nearly half didn’t believe.

Very often the forest dreamed its own dreams.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Hospital Visit

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

One time we sneaked in a dozen birthday cupcakes.

The nurses smiled. Grandpa ate the paper part. I watched him reach for another.

I said, You can’t eat the skins.

He gagged and choked. He was just being a goof. That was grandpa.

He’d eat paper to get a laugh.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Weathering Another Day of Missing Her

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

Some aches, like some days, were worse than others. He swallowed a pill to make himself sunny, but within hours the clouds were back. He practiced his breathing.

Meanwhile, real clouds, gray and big as mountains, bumped against the window. Some kind of wild bird was cawing in the trees.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Make No Mistake Where the Master Waits

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Every night the master sleeps with his head resting in the groove of a guillotine,
the blade elevated, notched by a lever. Lanterns illuminate the narrow chamber.

All any disciple need do is enter and release the blade.

Each night the master dreams of the wisest, purest, most devoted assassin.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

BOB THURBER: Grand Theft

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Eventually the man who’d been our son-in-law remarried.

Regrettably his new wife didn’t want us in her life.

She connived and ultimately influenced her husband to keep our grandchildren from us.

Despite this extreme cruelty and betrayal, grandma remains no less “grand.”

Defined by her enduring love, she waits patiently.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.