We built enchanted castles, sailed driftwood boats, raced pirates and mermaids, carefree feet printing unfinished stories across sun-rippled sand. Now I watch the sea and wonder if the restless waves stir old memories, if you ever stop to look for sirens or sea monsters.
If you ever think of me.
Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.
The project did not matter; it was all about the aroma. The more sawdust produced, the more shavings he curled off the wood, the more his nostrils were filled with a smell that transfixed him into a Zen-like state. On some days he was even known to make something useful.
Chris Lihou is retired, now finding his voice via writing; including 50 word fiction.
Decades ago, in high school, he joined friends singing a song. One took him aside. “You’re hopeless. You shouldn’t even try.”
He vowed to never sing in public.
Today, in the nursing home, they encouraged him to join their singalong. He shook his head and wandered away.
“Curmudgeon,” someone said.
Alan Kemister is a retired scientist experimenting with more fictitious writing. He’s currently working on a climate change trilogy. Two books are published. Get the gory details at alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com.
Eve didn’t blame the snake. It was Time that got her and Adam into trouble. When God showed them that apple tree, their mouths watered. Then he told them, “Don’t eat it.” What did he do next? Left them alone. With Time on their hands and apples on their minds.
Jonathan Odell has published three novels and his essays and short stories have appeared in various national publications. He lives in Minneapolis with his husband. His website is JonathanOdell.com.
In a cove of foam and grasping driftwood he finds five suitcases, and heavy with salt drags them ashore. Inside one a plastic bag of cash, a copper rosary, a letter that dissolves in his hands. He leaves the cases lined up on the sand from largest to pink-stickered smallest.
Jonathan Battista is an author and poet, and an accidental finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam. He has been published in Aniko Magazine and Alethia Literary Quarterly, including as the winner of the inaugural ALQ prose poetry award. He lives on Dharug and Gundungurra Country in the Blue Mountains of Australia with his wife and son.
The story of the week for February 13 to 17 is…
Father’s Stories by Jenise Cook
The campfire crackled as my terminally ill father shared family stories with my teenage son. The Milky Way above us witnessed the transfer of traditions. My chest puffed up with pride at my son’s rapt attention, until the final story.
That’s when I found out I’m not my father’s son.
Jenise Cook lives with her husband in the north-central highlands of Arizona where it snows. Jenise enjoys visitors to @jenisecook on Twitter and JeniseCook.com, where you can find a list of her published works.
Heat wave doubleheader. Us useless ones lounge in the dugout popping the rich boy pitcher’s Big League Chew as he throws his arm out at 40 miles per hour. The crack of ball against bat tears us from the benches. Our outfielder, chasing butterflies, loses the ball to the bushes.
Max Schachner loves reading and writing all kinds of prose and poetry. He also has childhood experience playing baseball poorly.
I sit, tapping my foot and avoiding eye contact with the man opposite.
Finally the receptionist looks up: “Welcome to the Afterlife. Please take your name badge and enter the assessment room.”
I leap up and grab a random name badge, hoping ‘Jacob Coleman’ was a better man than I.
Laura Cookson lives in Liverpool, England with her fiancé and cat. Her short fiction has also appeared in Short Fiction Break, and she blogs about books and writing at www.daydreamingdragons.com.
You ask me to visit, that you want to see your grandkids.
Well, Howard is in one of his moods. It’s easier to appease him and make it up to you later. I’ll sneak away some other afternoon.
But heart attacks aren’t bound by schedules. And nothing erases the regret.
Mexican-born writer Germain M.C. grew up in the Southern United States and currently lives in Europe, where he works as an English tutor. His flash work draws from a decade as a research chemist and a lifetime as an immigrant, with published pieces in 365tomorrows, fiveminutelit, and Stonecrop Review.