The story of the week for April 4 to 8 is…
Scattered by Jennifer L. Freed
NELLY SHULMAN: Tender Loving Care
Selling the old apartment where everything reminded him of the happier times, he moved to the sad outskirts of the town where he stood now in the ailing flower shop, unable to decide between the pink hyacinth and a lilac hydrangea, both in dire need of some tender loving care.
Nelly Shulman is a writer currently based in Berlin. Her work has appeared on JewishFiction.net, in the Vine Leaves Press Anthology of the Best 2021 Flash Fiction and in Sky Island Journal.
MICHELLE WILSON: Lost and Found
A pair of eyeballs discovered in the Florida Everglades were returned to a Suffolk County man who’d lost them some five months prior in a near-fatal robbery. The stolen eyeballs contained images of his attacker’s subsequent whereabouts: riverboat casinos, high-end hotels, daredevil pursuits…
…the snapping jaws of a fourteen-foot alligator.
Michelle Wilson’s words have appeared in Potato Soup Journal’s Best of 2021 Anthology, Rejection Letters, Maudlin House, Litro Magazine, The Drabble, 50-Word Stories, Literally Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, among others. She lives in Miami Beach, Florida.
KATHERINE DARLINGTON: Retreat
The sun slides into the horizon
Waves crash the shore
I slip down
Through grainy sand
Let me drown in the sand
It is here that I feel nothingness
Do not throw me a rope or even a prayer
I want to fall into this abyss:
The silence is peace.
Katherine Darlington has articles in many publications including poetry anthologies, and literary journals. She also has several published novels. See more of her work at katherinedarlington.com.
ALYSON FAYE: Anniversary
The couple sat on the bench, one at either end but tethered to each other. Sudden sleet feathered their coats, turning them ghostly. Snow-blinded, I blinked. Now, the bench was bereft, except for a spray of primroses.
“Bye, Mum and Dad,” I whispered.
The wind grabbed my words, taunting me.
Alyson lives in the UK with her family including her rescue animals. She works as a tutor/editor. Her dark stories have appeared often on the Horror Tree, and varied anthologies, most recently ‘Night Frights’, ‘Were Tales’ and ‘Don’t Break the Oath’. She’s often roaming the moors with her Labrador, Roxy.
JACK GALATI: A Fire in the Backyard
Dad throws in the family photo album. He pretends he doesn’t know and walks feigning a drunken stupor, but we can all see the sadness in his eyes as the photo of him and my mom turns red to ash and takes flight under the light autumn breeze, lost forever.
Jack Galati is a writer living in Arizona. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University where his work was selected for the Undergraduate Writers Showcase. His fiction and poetry has been published in a number of magazines and journals.
JODY PADUMACHITTA GOCH: Gravity
The sound of heavy plastic, a zipper, and sobbing.
I lay on cold metal, grieving the sun on the rock and my first free climb. My fingers still dusted with chalk; the skin sandpapered by the rough edges of granite.
“Yes. That is my daughter.”
Mom will wash my hands.
Jody padumachitta Goch is a Canadian living in the German Black Forest. They write poetry and short fiction, chop wood, and train horses. Jody’s jeans and shirt pockets are full of stories. It’s hell on the wash machine. They enjoy lighting the wood stove and rescuing words from the lint catcher.
JENNIFER L FREED: Scattered
She tries
to sit in sunlight, but it never stays
where she left it.
Her room feels too dim.
She leans to open the blinds,
knocks over the bowl of blue marbles.
Again and again, she reaches to gather them up.
Again and again, her hand knocks them farther away.
Jennifer L. Freed mostly writes poems. Her new book, based on the aftermath of her mother surviving a stroke, is available from Kelsay Books or at her website (jfreed.weebly.com) and includes some short poems previously published at 50-Word Stories.
JOHN H. DROMEY: Fading Away
“You look sad, Jennifer. Is something troubling you?”
“I had a nostalgic flashback to my distant past. At long last, I’m finally dealing with the loss of an imaginary friend from my childhood.”
“What happened?”
“Reportedly, she drowned in the middle of a desert.”
“In an oasis?”
“No. A mirage.”
John H. Dromey’s short stories have appeared in Mystery Magazine and numerous other publications.
N WEST MOSS: Pecking Order
Pete had a heart attack recently, and recovery is lengthy.
His hen (I’ll call her Penny) is being pecked nearly to death by the others. Since he has time, Pete stands in the coop swatting at the mean hens with the feed scoop.
Penny follows him around, borrowing Pete’s bravery.
N. West Moss is the author of the memoir, Flesh & Blood from Algonquin (2021) as well as the short story collection, The Subway Stops at Bryant Park from Leapfrog (2017). Her middle grade novel, Birdy, is forthcoming from Little, Brown.