Tag Archives: family

JAYNE MARTIN: Brothers

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

I wait for Mom and Dad to return from the hospital.

Please wake up.

The rock skips one, two, three times across the calm lake surface before sinking into the deep. It’s all in the wrist action. I tried to teach you, like I tried to teach you to swim.

Jayne Martin is a Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfictions nominee, and a recipient of Vestal Review’s VERA award. Her debut collection of microfiction, “Tender Cuts,” from Vine Leaves Press, is available now. Visit jaynemartin-writer.com or find her on Twitter at @Jayne_Martin or Facebook at Jayne Martin-Author.

NATALIE SCHRIEFER: Safety Blanket

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

I love blankets. I love their softness, their variety—their moods ranging from pastels to prints. I love my camo comforter most, big enough to cocoon me completely, my body hidden, protected from the cold, the open air, my parents’ voices swelling in the den… Nothing can reach me here.

Natalie Schriefer received her MFA from Southern Connecticut State University. She works as a freelance writer and editor. See more at natalieschriefer.com.

HARRY DEMAREST: Social Distancing

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

It was 1918. Grandpa loved his 9 grandchildren, but the Flu was deadly, so whenever a grandchild approached, he held up his hand, and shouted, “Hey!”

His grandkids still loved him, but they never hugged.

They started calling him “Heypappy”, and that’s how it was for his remaining 25 years.

Harry Demarest wrote this true story about his great grandfather, Franklin Conklin.

ALYCE CLARK: Memories on Jessie Street

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I let the tears fall. Years in that house… So many memories. Pictures that hung on the wall my entire life. Gone. Emptied out; packed up; now just boxes. Granddad’s gone. Grandma’s in a nursing home. Just an address now.

Still this place holds me, locked deep within my soul.

Alyce Clark is adjusting to sheltering in place, practicing social distancing when shopping for essentials… and truly missing her grandmother.

SHARON GERGER: Bear!

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

I give him a teddy bear and tell him it will keep him company, someone to talk to, while I work.

He returns him minutes later, saying the bear won’t stop talking about scratching his bum on trees and digging for bugs.

Such is life in quarantine with my husband.

Sharon Gerger loves to write and play more than she likes to work.

JACQUELINE DOYLE: New Shoes

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Ensconced in a wheelchair, my mother holds up her feet and wiggles them, showing off new pale beige moccasins, fur-lined, soft and roomy for her swollen feet. “My sister got them for me,” she tells a nursing home attendant, gleeful. But really it was me, her daughter, become unimaginably old.

Jacqueline Doyle’s flash chapbook The Missing Girl is available from Black Lawrence Press. Find her online at jacquelinedoyle.com and on Twitter at @doylejacq.

MATTHEW EICHENLAUB: Five Years Old

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Weeping for his dead father,
Aunt Lizzie held him at the doorway
to the kitchen,
______________and would not let go.

Later, she spooned bacon grease over sizzling eggs.
Cooled their coffee and milk while he sat on her lap,
cup to saucer, saucer to cup, a sip,
______________and a giggle.

Matthew Eichenlaub is most fortunate to be living in southern Maine with a pickup truck, health insurance, and a new right hip. Thank you to the Essence of all that is.

MELANIE MAGGARD: The Summer Before

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Two sisters, best friends, ran to the pool’s edge.

Nostrils filled with chlorine, sunscreen, peanut butter. Mother called, but twenty minutes was forever when shimmery waves signaled.

Everything—the cherry Koolaid mustaches, the sticky fingers—would be wiped clean.

They bent knees, inhaled sharply, pinched noses, then jumped, holding hands.

Melanie Maggard is a flash fiction and short story writer living in Seattle. She works as a psychology professor for an online university but hopes to grow up to be an author some day.

ANNA SANDERSON: 2065

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Grandpa’s favourite story’s about the pandemic, when everyone stayed inside to stay safe. People sang for strangers and painted with their kids. Those who were able ran errands, called old friends, learnt neighbours’ names. Terrifying times, but amazing, Grandpa says.

He’s obviously exaggerating. Surely people did these things before that?

Anna Sanderson writes about the world as she sees it (with the odd twist and turn). You can follow her story on Twitter at @annasanderson86.

CONNOR WILLIAMS: Childhood

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Touching, , , , , ,

A warm summer’s evening:
A light breeze.
Green trees,
with an orange sunset.
And where:

The birds chirped.
The cat purred.
The dog barked.
The parents yelled—

and the baby cried:
Being cradled gently and carried away
by an elderly woman,
with a somber face and badge on her hip.

Pratt Institute attendee, Connor Williams started learning to write about what mattered after fleeing Brooklyn in the wake of Covid-19.