Tag Archives: loss

BOB THURBER: The Night the News Came

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , ,

We talked for hours, while making lists of people to call. Halfway to morning we went to bed. We were shattered. Before we fell asleep the wind picked up, gusting snow off the trees. As the branches lightened, they scratched against the windows, like something asking to be let in.

Author’s Note: For Sarah Kate 1980-2010

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, despite severe vision loss, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

ANN ZIMMERMAN: Fog

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, ,

Fog surrounds our seaside home and fills my father’s mind. He doesn’t understand that I alone ward off the nursing home.

He tries to escape to his army camp. I follow his footprints to the water. A knot cramps my stomach.

Dropping to my knees, I think he’s calling me.

Ann Zimmerman lives with her wife and 2 cats in Colorado, where she writes, hikes, skis, golfs, enjoys photography and grandchildren. See more at annzimmermanblog.wordpress.com.

G ALLEN WILBANKS: An Almost Perfect Day

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

It’s a beautiful spring day, although perhaps a little too warm for the suit I picked out.

A bird sings from the branch of a nearby tree. I welcome the distraction.

She always loved birds, I think to myself, as I toss a handful of dirt onto the tiny coffin.

G. Allen Wilbanks is a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and has published over 40 short stories in Deep Magic, Daily Science Fiction, The Talisman, and other venues. He has published two short story collections, and his first novel, When Darkness Comes, was released in October, 2017. For more information, visit gallenwilbanks.com.

JANE HERTENSTEIN: Entrepreneur

Submissions, Touching, , , , , ,

Things I’ve done for money: collected cans for cash, sold chocolate, shoveled sidewalks after a snowstorm. Once I built an amusement park in the backyard and sold tickets. That was the summer Mom quit chemo.

I told jokes for a penny. She bought a hundred, and listened from her bed.

Jane Hertenstein wrote this story.

TAMSIN SEYMOUR: Still Knitting

Submissions, Touching, , ,

The left arm was too long. Distracted, she’d miscounted the rows above the cuff.

He’d just grin and blame his shoulder. That permanent, lopsided shrug that gave his silhouette such beautiful asymmetry.

As she laid the neatly folded pullover on the grass, she noticed his headstone leaned the same way.

Tamsin is disappointed that she has never mastered knitting.

JENNIFER M SMITH: Crisscross

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Little if any sizzling. Pulling away from the pan.

A toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

She turned it upside down on a wire cooling rack then righted it on another.

That brief time left an impression.

The crisscross pattern reminded her of her mother.

Dead at forty-two.

Jennifer M. Smith was taught the family baking secrets at an early age. She never met her maternal grandmother.

PENNY JO McALLISTER: Happiness

Adventure, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

“Happiness is seeing Mars in your rear-view mirror…” sang Lorg as the planet disappeared from view. “Good luck colonizing that mudball!”

He turned on the vessel’s kitchen feature. Reaching for the hyperspace button, he hesitated and turned around instead. “I’d colonize an asteroid with Liya if she wanted.”

He sighed.

Penny Jo McAllister writes fantasy and has never left Earth.

HENRY BLADON: The Loving Tree

Submissions, Touching, ,

“Let’s walk to our tree,” she’d say. Our special place.

Through the wood, twigs snap underfoot. The brook flows by, reflecting dazzling summer sun. At the tree, a blackbird sings. I run my fingers over her initials, still carved into the trunk.

She’s gone. Her name forever in my heart.

Henry writes micro, flash and full fiction. He lives in Somerset, UK and he likes trees.

JO WITHERS: Eight Months Later

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , ,

He hadn’t thought of her today. (Much.)

Then, his friend’s boy with his innocent question, “What’s your favourite colour?” (Couldn’t know the pain it caused.)

“Yellow,” he replied. (But what he really meant was: saffron sparks. Those lemon lights of stranded stardust that campfires used to summon in her eyes.)

Jo Withers is in a strangely sentimental mood. It won’t last.

G ALLEN WILBANKS: Memory Thief

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

“Isn’t that the funniest thing you ever heard?”

“Yes, mom. It’s a wonderful story. But it’s time for bed. Good night.”

I sigh and think to myself, when you wake up tomorrow you can tell it again, and I will pretend it’s the first time I ever heard it. Again.

G. Allen Wilbanks is a member of the HWA and has published over 40 short stories in Deep Magic, Daily Science Fiction, The Talisman, and other venues. He has published two short story collections, and his first novel, When Darkness Comes, was released in October, 2017. For more information, visit gallenwilbanks.com.