Tag Archives: unexpected

MARIA TASS: Hairspray Hymn

Artistic, Odd, Submissions, ,

Her hair rose like a careful helmet, brown waves shellacked into prayerful stillness. She rode the bus smiling politely, beady eyes skimming passengers while pretending to gaze out the windows. At my stop, a gust blew through the door. Her hair did not move. Instead, somewhere inside it, something whistled.

Maria Tass has a degree in Psychology and her work has appeared in Gray & Granite Magazine. Based in Toronto, she revels in the city’s secondhand shops and hidden laneways where the strange and beautiful converge.

CITHARA PATRA: The Shell

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

Seashells. I love collecting them. I love running my fingers across their ridges. I want to hear the ocean in them. The one in my hand is small and delicate. Holding it to my face, I whisper. “Hello.”

It screams, “PUT ME DOWN!”

I drop it as I run away.

Cithara currently lives in North Carolina with their family, traveling between NC and Texas. They spend much of their time writing and studying languages. They’re fond of reading all kinds of things, from romance to horror. They’re also a big fan of things from the ocean, dachshunds, and making brand new meals. In their spare time, they travel with their family around the city and check out brand new restaurants and places to eat.

ART SCRIBBLER: Early Departure

Amusing, Artistic, Odd, Submissions, , ,

I went to sit next to an actor who I thought was my friend. He told me that my seat was already taken. Then someone got up and did an impromptu dance about a piece of string.

I walked down to the beach, snuck to my car, and drove home.

Art Scribbler lives in Portland, Oregon. He works in a grocery store. When he’s not working, he likes to write, read, listen to jazz, and watch old movies on TV. He also likes drinking coffee and scribbling posts on his blog called The Morning Scribble.

PONTIUS PAIVA: py9ma1i0n

Adventure, Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

She brought meaning to the life of the old inventor. Yet before today, she never even knew he existed. Her thoughts and feelings came as a surprise to them both. Over the years they learned and laughed, even loved.

It was obvious he had built more than “just a robot.”

Pontius Paiva tries his best to bring characters to life and can be found tinkering away on multiple projects at pontiuspaiva.com.

BOB THURBER: Before She Was My Mother

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

At eighteen, after winning two local beauty pageants, she hitchhiked to Hollywood, auditioned for a movie role with just one line, landed the part, but production fell through. Then she became pregnant. On all my birthdays she whispered that one line, smiling while adjusting her pose, searching for the camera.

Bob Thurber is the author of six books. 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 awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

This story was originally published in The Woolf and included in Best Microfiction 2022.

ANOOP BHAT: Magic

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

He asked if it was her card, knowing it wasn’t. He’d fumbled the shuffle, and now his hands were shaking even more than before.

But when he met her eyes, she was smirking. “I liked the little spin move at the end.”

An eternity passed. He found himself smirking back.

Anoop Bhat is an aspiring roboticist and a causal parkour artist. One day he hopes to see a robot doing parkour alongside him.

PERRY McDAID: Guise of Providence

Amusing, Submissions, ,

It was peaceful in the near-empty compartment of the 22:30 to Belfast. Carrie felt so secure, with the guard’s regular walk-bys, that she could have stolen an hour’s sleep.

Yet she was fixated on the man with his finger up his nose.

That saved her life when the train derailed.

Irish writer Perry McDaid lives in Derry under the brooding brows of Donegal hills which he occasionally hikes in search of druidic inspiration.

IAIN YOUNG: More Vegetables Won’t Make a Difference

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Death’s hand, which I shook reluctantly, was a plumped pillow.

“You’re safe,” he said. “For now.”

“I pictured you as a, you know—”

“Skeleton? You should’ve seen me before the Western diet.” Laughter rippled his corpulence. “Doctor’s telling me to eat better, but she thinks I’m lying about my work.”

Iain Young hasn’t forgotten the childhood nightmare in which he was chased by angry vegetables. That might explain a lot.

ALEXANDRA RENWICK: Killer Details

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

Target confirmed, advance fee accepted, Robert dresses that night to kill. Black pants, black turtleneck, black greasepaint covering every inch of face and hands. Stealthy, he waits in shrubbery. Hours pass. Lights dim. Robert heeds nature’s call at last.

Sirens erupt: the alarm!

He’d never considered greasepaint below the belt.

Alexandra Renwick’s literary pulp fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s & Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines, The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir, and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. When not inhabiting urban wetlands in Austin, Texas, she can be found curating a crumbling historic manor near downtown Ottawa. More at alexcrenwick.com.

JOAN TRUEMAN: How I Met Your Mother

Submissions, Touching, , ,

She was beautiful, alluring, desirable.

I moved gracefully towards her, straightening my bowtie.

Just as I arrived, she smiled … and accepted the hand of another suitor.

The embarrassment of turning back would burn.

With a deft sideways movement I stood before a plain woman.

“Dance?”

Unexpectedly, my heart awoke.

Joan is an educator in Australia.