Short Stories
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In With The Old
A year and a half ago, I entered a short story competition with some rather unusual rules. The publishing house sponsoring the competition provided the first and the twentieth paragraphs of the story, and the contestants would write the story around these two paragraphs. Oh, and the story had to be exactly fifty paragraphs in length. I learned of the competition the day before the closing date. Since the cash prize was a nice one, I decided to give it a spin. I sat down at my desk with a cupful of sharpened pencils, opened a fresh notebook, and started scratching words onto the paper. I wrote all day, taking…
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All Hallow’s Eve
Jinx and I went for our morning stroll while it was still full dark, the coin of the full moon shining down on the grass, the blades silvered by the breath of some Frost Giant who slumbered among these mountains during the night. I watched my dog sprint and prance among the tombstones in the graveyard, his shadow flitting along with him while the large owl in the adjacent trees asked his eternal question and the coyotes on the ridge sang their eerie songs across the lit valley and a rooster crowed in a nearby farmyard. Halloween already, and tonight we turn the clocks back to what my grandmother used…
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Altruism Uncut
I entered the store and left the city’s noise behind me on the other side of the glass. Born in the last century just six blocks away, I was a child of the concrete, but the shift in the air and in the streets over the decades had caused me to imagine often that I was going to sell the apartment and take Marcie to live in the country. We would shop at farmer’s markets and greet our neighbors by their first names and we would never hear sirens and we would sleep with nothing but screens between us and the trees and flowers outside. I longed to flee the…
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Part III
After leaving the house, we backtracked to the interstate and were a few miles down the road before Beth spoke. When she did, I could tell from her tone that she was annoyed. “Well, that was quite an interlude,” she said. I agreed that it was and started to say something about our host, but she smacked the dashboard with one hand and said in a too-loud voice, “And what about that Jamie? Something special, am I right?” I nodded, pausing to see if she was going to keep talking or give me time to frame a response. She turned and looked at me. I could smell her hair, the…
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Part II
I turned back to lock the door and heard the young people whispering. I watched them in the hall tree mirror for a second, then turned back to them, returning their smiles. I asked them if everything was okay, and they said yes in unison. I asked them to come into the kitchen, explaining that the living room is a place I avoid these days, and that the kitchen seems sunnier, even at night. I could tell they wanted to look at each other, but they didn’t, and this made me smile even more. I led the way to the kitchen, pretending I didn’t hear them whispering again. Turning the…
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Part I
On the road seven hours, trying to make it home so we could check on our horses, and we took the desperation exit because we saw the McDonald’s sign. It might not be good, but we knew it would be drinkable and hot and cheap. We pulled into the lot over to the side and got out and switched off. My husband had been driving the entire stretch and he was hitting that wall, so we figured the coffee stop would be a good place to let me spot him. I slid into the driver’s seat, adjusted the things that needed adjusting, and pulled into the drive-thru lane. Friday nights…
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Christmas Cat
The damp leaves muffled all sound as Wynn moved down the slope towards the creek. A crow sitting high in a pine called down into the woods, and the sound reminded Wynn of human conversation. It had been a few days. He was warm from the exertion of movement, but his nose was red and numb from the air’s bite, and Wynn couldn’t tell if it was running or not, so he rubbed the back of his glove across his nose and the glove remained clean. A large, dark shape to his left drew his attention, but it was only a boulder jutting free from the earth, blackened with…
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Black Surface
Paw wasn’t really my Paw. He was my girlfriend’s grandfather, sapling-thin and dangerous as a forgotten family secret. I was at his house to help him with a few chores, trying to return to his good graces after being the direct cause of him being recently routed from sleep by a county deputy sheriff. Granny came into the living room, where I was pretending to watch tv while Paw stood at the kitchen window and drank scalding coffee the way most people drink cold water. She rushed in on her short legs and asked me if I wanted anything to eat before heading out with Paw. I declined and thanked…
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A Hallowe’en Tale
He knew the instant he opened his eyes that something was terribly wrong. The light in the room was dim, and he was propped up in some sort of hospital bed. The pillows were high behind him, the rails were raised on the sides, and a beeping machine on a tall pole was stationed to his right. A tube snaked from the machine to his right arm, and seemed to be attached there. When he tried to lift his arm to confirm this, he discovered that his hands and arms were immobilized. There were no visible restraints, but his arms would not move no matter how he tried. …
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Flash Fiction — Beneath The Cocoon
We could see them, far down in the flat field at the bottom of the rise where we sat. They looked small, but I was sure I could hear them. The man glanced back and noticed that I was shivering. He set down his things and picked up the two blankets he’d been carrying since he found me. With economical movements, he spun the blankets around me and tucked them in. “Those’ll keep you warm. I want you to sit still. And stay quiet.” He picked up the things he’d set down and began to move down the path. “I want to come with you,” I said. He wheeled around,…