The story of the week for May 22 to 26 is…
Uncle Clifford by Margaret McGoverne
WANDA PHILLIPS: Follow Along
“Walk with me,” she said. He glanced over his shoulder. She shrugged and walked away. He shifted, as if to follow, but rocked back with reluctance.
She didn’t pause, didn’t glance back.
When she’d turned the corner, he decided. He hurried, hungry and urgent. He pursued her.
“Mom!” he cried.
Wanda Jane is as Canadian as the Shield, and as resilient. She was born in Nova Scotia, back in the day, and has lived in four of the ten provinces. She intends to visit the North. Wanda writes for many of the reasons you can think of and some you probably wouldn’t. Words are the guitar strings, the tubes of oil paints, and the perfume of life. She experiments with genres, structure, and style. A day-to-day acquaintance with Wanda would reveal a woman who spends a lot of time listening, struggles with the obstacles of living, and drinks deeply of the companionship she shares with her several friends.
JENNIFER HAMBRICK: Mansplanation
He finished speaking, and Eve just stood there for a moment blinking at him. Then her lips curved into a wide smile and her shoulders began to shake. And the laughter came leaking out, first in spurts, then in fits, as she turned and staggered away, mirthfully munching an apple.
A Pushcart Prize nominee, Jennifer Hambrick was a winner in the 2017 international Golden Triangle Haiku Contest (Washington, D.C.) and received the Merit Award in the 2017 Montenegrin International Haiku Competition (English). Her debut chapbook of free verse poems, Unscathed (NightBallet Press), was nominated for the Ohioana Book Award, she won the Ohio Poetry Association’s 2013 Ides of March contest, and she has received many other recognitions for her work, which has been published in Santa Clara Review, Third Wednesday, Mad River Review, Pudding Magazine, River River, Muddy River Poetry Review, 50-Word Stories, the major Japanese newspapers The Asahi Shimbun (The Morning Sun) and The Mainichi (The Daily News), Modern Haiku, Frogpond, World Haiku Review, The Heron’s Nest, Acorn, Cattails, Presence, Bones, Haiku Canada Review, Moongarlic, bottle rockets, Shamrock, Wild Plum, Ershik, Ribbons, Eucalypt, Contemporary Haibun Online, Haibun Today, and in dozens of other journals worldwide, in English and in translation. Jennifer Hambrick is founder and editor of the International Women’s Haiku Festival. A classical musician and public radio broadcaster and web producer, Jennifer lives in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Her blog, Inner Voices, is at jenniferhambrick.com.
ROB WALTON: Metamorphosis
I started turning into a tree three days ago. Then stopped. It’s unseemly having only two branches and barely any leaves. But so many knots.
Mum shook her head and tutted. Dad patted me on the trunk, then checked his palm for splinters. Ever-practical Joanna showed the saw’s sharp teeth.
Rob Walton is a writer, performer and teacher from Scunthorpe, England. He now lives with his family in North Shields, from where he travels to perform in schools and libraries. Poems, short stories and flash fictions for children and adults have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. He collated the text for the New Hartley Memorial Pathway and collaborates with sculptor Russ Coleman. He won the UK’s National Flash Fiction Day micro-fiction competition 2015. He sometimes tweets @anicelad and his oddness can be found at linesofdesire.co.uk.
STEPHANIE PRESS: The Reply
That walk, a simple turn around the block at day’s end. Birds chirping, warm breeze blowing, trees softly stirring. Still not quite summer.
And I’m just trying to talk to you.
Then sounds are swallowed up; the world goes still. We are in a bubble.
Stillness that’s Holy.
You answered.
Stephanie Press love stories as an exploration of identity, the vision of what is to come, and understanding where we’ve been.
JONATHAN HOUSTON: Fifty-Word Story Blues
Only fifty words?
Yes, fifty.
That doesn’t seem like very much.
It isn’t, but that’s all we have.
Alright, let me think.
You have twenty-three words left.
You mean we already started?
I’m afraid so.
Well, why didn’t you tell me?
Sorry.
Darn it! Okay, here goes: my story begins-
Jonathan Houston is a freelance writer who loves the great outdoors, films about redemption, and the occasional rack of ribs. But not necessarily in that order.
MARGARET McGOVERNE: Uncle Clifford
Uncle Clifford dealt scrap.
Valentino in overalls, his hair slicked with axle grease. Boot polish moustachioed, ladies swooned.
“Yaargh!” he bellowed, swaggering to the pub.
One night, he disturbed burglars.
At his wake, I slicked soot beneath his innocent nose.
“Yaargh,” I whispered.
Mourners tutted, scandalized.
But only the men.
Margaret McGoverne has recently published her first novella, while being distracted by short stories, flash fiction and her blog about all things writing.
SUSAN LOZANO: Future
We had so many wonderful plans for the future, and now he and they are gone.
People say, “Move on. The past is gone; you have your future.”
My future was supposed to be with him.
The future is in one second.
The future is now.
I am scared.
Go.
Susan is a Curriculum Developer at a mortgage company. She is widowed with two grown daughters and two stepsons, and four awesome grandchildren, two boys and two girls.
ANITA REYNOLDS: How They Met
“That’s the girl I’m going to marry,” he said, pointing down the hall. His friends dared him to approach, ask her simply for a date.
“You’re cute, but I already have a dog,” said she, in reply to his awkward entreaty.
Right he was. The two were married forty-seven years.
Anita Reynolds is a writer and artist, wife and mom in the rural reaches of Tennessee. Her work is inspired by the strangeness of life, from the mundane to the magical.
MARK FARLEY: The Stranded Mermaid
She carries
ten limestones
to the ocean,
each wrapped
in vine leaves,
and throws one
every minute,
counting the
seconds
between.
Today
it takes
seven
before he
crawls
from the water –
slimy,
salty,
steaming
in the sun.
His arms
are green
with algae
but all she needs
is his kiss.
Mark Farley writes novels, flash fiction and the occasional poem.