Call from Health Department: voice claimed Eliza was exposed to COVID-19, should quarantine.
Eliza shivered, hung up. This was Anthony’s fault. They’d met behind the Nitty Gritty wearing masks, thought it’d be OK.
Her husband appeared. “Who’s calling you?”
“Lady looking for a jerk I never heard of,” said Eliza.
Shoshauna Shy finds the pandemic provides a lot of writing material. Read more about what she does at PoetryJumpsOfftheShelf.com.
We don’t know who will be “It” next. No one screams, freezes, then pivots.
Paramedics ushered Mr. Steensaver out in his bathrobe last night, Greta from two doors over today.
Pushing the elevator button could be our downfall. Meeting the FedEx man. How to become invisible from an invisible enemy?
Shoshauna Shy relies on stories and poetry to get through the pandemic. More of her work can be found online at Literary Orphans, 100WordStory, Fiction Southeast, Brilliant Flash Fiction, and lots of other places.
We are fair weather friends. Yet here you are seeking my embrace. You need sustenance, but the shelves in town are ransacked. You need nurturance, but the seven beds at the hospital are all spoken for. I am a mere Band-Aid for a bullet wound. I am only a house.
Shoshauna thanks all the other authors of 50-Word Stories for their continual inspiration.
Jenice left the dorm, left her purse bedside.
Success: her phone showed Channel 3 suspected abduction. Maybe that police siren nearing Lowell Woods was coming to search for her at last.
She ripped her shirt collar, threw her phone into the creek.
Denny would never threaten to leave her again.
Shoshauna is often inspired by the other 50-word stories that authors write for this site, and is grateful for that.
I’ve always wanted to put a snowball down a pretty girl’s neck, then have her end up in my arms kissing me.
So, I tried that out on Penny St. James. She was flirting with my brother, but just enough to make me jealous, right?
Knee to my groin: WRONG.
Shoshauna Shy loves how micro-fiction and poetry require the writer to condense.
Maybe you will call, she manages to murmur while lowering herself into the taxi, before I close the door between us. It is not a question; just a simple statement. She has saved me from lying to us both.
This makes me like her more than I have all evening.
Shoshauna Shy gets inspired by all the other 50-word story authors on this site.
“I should’ve had more daughters,” said Melinda’s mother, pouring lemonade poolside. “You never tell me anything.”
Melinda inhaled slowly. “My novel got an… award.”
“With how much money?”
“No money. A certificate.”
The mother smirked, shielding her eyes from the sun. “How sad is that.”
Melinda lowered her hat brim.
Shoshauna Shy’s flash has been published by 100 Word Story, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Fiction Southeast, and other online journals.
I never was in love with Gillian. Just thought I was.
But once she expired in my cellar, it smelled bad. And after I buried her, I found the diary in the wall crack. All she wrote about was escaping.
A petite redhead exits the bike path alone every evening.
Shoshauna Shy has had her flash fiction published by Sou’wester, Fiction Southeast, 100WordStory.com and other places.