She claims she grows those flowers for their beauty, but she’s careful to pick any tempting berries before foraging birds can find them.
Drinking always makes him worse. He downs another, pleased she’s silent now. Sits alone to eat the food she’s prepared, never noticing the bitterness in every mouthful.
Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.
I handed over three passports.
“You are without visa.”
“Yes.”
“You must be deported.”
“I know.”
“There is fine. 1,500 lei cash.”
We gathered bills. “I don’t have 1,500.”
“Not child. 1,000.”
“I have 870.”
“Ok. 800.” She took the cash and sent us to the deportation office for paperwork.
Chris Deca teaches internationally and has lived in seven countries. His writing draws on travel, education, and life in unexpected places, including a monastery kitchen and a camper.
What delicate, ornate engravings the old keys have. Erin discovers them behind her recently purchased farmhouse’s shed.
She’s captivated by their descriptions, for different cellars: root, wine, cheese, beer. Where could they be?
Digging in her overgrown backyard garden, she excitedly hits thick stonework.
Another inscription becomes unearthed: Here Lies…
Sara Kate Egan finds inspiration in a diverse natural world surrounding her in the Upper Midwest, be it wild woodlands, Great Lakes, colorful prairies, or curious critters within such special places. Writing locally flavored microfiction is her favorite thing, although sometimes a nice enough poem will strike. Watch out, world!
His mother loved the melody of leaves flapping in the woods beside Nickajack Lake where she camped on summer nights, so she named him Aspen. He’d grow up tall, she decided. Sturdy. He believed her till age six when he heard his name on boys’ lips shouted across a playground.
Shoshauna loves how flash fiction cuts to the chase, and is grateful to find stories all over the place.
It’s only after she touches your sleeve that you realize you’ve been wet this whole while. How long were you outside in all this? An hour? An afternoon? You can’t say. But when she reaches her arms out it hits you: all this time all you wanted was the warm.
Arik M.’s work has been published under a variety of names. If you think you see him, say Hi.
Two hands entwined together. One human and cold, the other mechanical yet warm. He whispered, “I’m home,” though she could never answer. Every update preserved her voice, her smile, her habits. Love survived. She didn’t. He finally understood the difference between memory and presence at last, letting go anyway, forever.
Kaavya Rajan is a high school student from India. She has been published in magazines such as In the Mood and journals like Apotheca and Crashtest. She enjoys reading and watching tennis in her free time.
The story of the week for July 13 to 17 is…
To Teach Unlearning by Maria Cargille
on a partly cloudy day
in an ordinary small town
in a flyover state
a parade begins at 10 am
when the batons start swinging
and the brass strikes up a familiar march
with gusto
the townspeople clap and children cheer
for one day
all feels right
with the world
Roberta Beach Jacobson is the author of Demitasse Fiction: One-Minute Reads for Busy People.
On her first visit, she turned the light on and watched him sleep. When he woke, he was alone. Dismissing her presence as a vivid dream, he turned the light off.
Her weight sank the mattress. She said, “Don’t do that.”
“Turn the light out?”
“We don’t like it.”
“We?”
Kevin J. Fellows, is a former technologist but has always been a writer. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Translunar Travelers Lounge, ONE ART, 34 Orchard, Strange Horizons, Star*Line, and others. See more at kevinjfellows.com.