She lies on an isolated sunlounger and reads. From time to time, she gets up and roams the poolside area, glancing down, noting what others are reading. Back on her lounger, she googles the books and reads the preview pages. It helps her feel connected to the other hotel guests.
David Lowis writes in Surrey, England, and prefers going on holiday with his family to travelling alone.
An old boat dreams in a patch of brittle reeds, lulled by the elegy of summer passing.
Sentiments of paddle dips and skimming through duckweed. Giggles over water striders.
The plunk and bob of casting lines. Kisses from dazzle-dancing dragonflies.
Pining for a chance to chaperone one last moonlit romance.
Deb DiTomaso lives in Connecticut with her husband, a dog, and a bunch of chickens. She’s a career nurse with a lifelong passion for crafting stories. Her work has been placed as a finalist in CT Tassy Walden Awards for New Voices in Children’s Literature.
Twenty-four hours from New York, all five in the car plus Sam. A night in Virginia, then “South of the Border” billboards signing us through Spanish moss and fragrant orange groves until, finally, that golden light. Our fishing camp in Florida, now washed away with my childhood pirate birthday parties.
Alison has decades of experience developing compelling marketing content for more than 100 clients in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. Now, at age 60, she is applying her skills to a second career in creative writing. Born and raised in New York City, Alison is a voracious reader, enthusiastic hostess, and passionate cook.
After a rush to exfoliate and color away years of children and scour closets for outfits inappropriate for soccer practice, they crash into a Vegas hotel room, where, in a flash of giddy consensus, they dump their over-stuffed bags and non-sensible shoes, order room service, draw blackout curtains, and sleep.
Robin LaVoie is presently sweating in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. She writes personal essay and creative nonfiction on her Substack publication, It’s Like This, and her work has appeared in print and online, including Monday Coffee and Other Stories of Mothering Children with Special Needs (Inwords Press, 2013), Pentimento Magazine, BarBar, and NonBinary Review.
First time as a snowbird. Hadn’t expected to feel the rip and pull of my roots so intensely. How can a bird have roots? Well, I do. And now I don’t. But my wings have spread, and the warmth is seeping in. Welcoming in that winter sunshine with a sigh.
Elyse Ribbons is an American author and playwright formerly based in Chengdu, China, but currently snowbirding in Florida. With an MFA in Peking Opera and a graduate of the Stanford GSB, she has a wide variety of interests and experiences. She publishes work in both English and Chinese.
The Hawaiian radio station invites song requests.
“Two Tickets to Paradise by Eddie Money.”
“Good choice. When will you be arriving?” emails the DJ, after I tell her where I am from.
“I’ve been in Kona for three months, and I’ve had a wonderful time, but I’m heading home tomorrow.”
Ilona Rapin is addicted to the curiosity and excitement of wandering the world, which inspires her to write short stories about her impressions.
Focus on SkyMall. Pick a snack. Granola. Chew it slowly.
Crashes are rare and panic doesn’t help.
Soon I’ll be on a beach, alive and well with sandy toes.
Focus on chewing. Chocolate.
The plane will descend, it will land, I’ll cancel my return flight, and I’ll swallow.
Trail mix.
Erika Noel Johnson is figuring things out.
“Sorry we didn’t come back earlier.”
July warmth, salt, sunshine- flooding into the car that parks in the seam of pavement and beach. Birds laughing distant. Sunscreen uncapping, close. Sand’s likely too hot to walk on barefoot.
“Better late than never, huh?” she says.
The urn beside her says nothing.
Riley Montag is a Colorado-based trickster that’s usually up to Trouble, but not generally up to No Good. Follow Riley at @RileyAMontag.
Through sliding glass doors, we marvel at the magnificent, royal-blue sky. The wind-rippled ocean beckons, inspiring dreams of lounge chairs and exotic cocktails beside the water’s edge.
One almost forgets the cities drowned beneath it, and that if we stepped outside, the sun would cook us in under a minute.
Michelle Wilson graduated from Bennington College with a degree in literature and creative writing. Her words have appeared in Friday Flash Fiction, Entropy Squared, 50-Word Stories, 101 Words, Literally Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Healthcare in America, The Miami Herald, and elsewhere. She lives in Miami Beach, Florida.
We lie around the pool, melting, burning, toasting, marinating.
Nobody speaks, except for one woman berating her husband for not using sunscreen.
Later the waiter tells us they’ve been coming to this same hotel for twenty years. Well, twenty-three if you count the years since he died of skin cancer.
Tom O’Brien is an Irishman living in London. He’s been published in numerous places across the web and has short stories printed in Blood & Bourbon, Blink-Ink, and DEFY! Anthologies. His novella Straw Gods was shortlisted by Ellipsis Magazine in their publication competition.