Archive for Short stories
Wednesday at 11
Finally, the men were in agreement, and Skeet gave each of them an index card to write the rules on. 1. every Wednesday, unless snow, rain or holiday (discuss rain as needed) 2. meet at 11 A.M. 3. cancel in temperatures or wind chill index below 45 degrees (Elmer has arthritis in hip) 4. cancel […]
Cypher
Mr. Hobart suspected the boys were cheating, but he couldn’t figure out how. For one thing, their desks were too far apart. “Little devils,” he thought. Jesse and Charlie Ben both scored exactly the same on the history test. And not just that—their bonus credit answers were almost identical, and the questions covered topics he […]
Hooah
During the Vietnam war, Danny served as an Army medic—in northern Italy. The most dangerous thing he did, he joked, was administer first-aid to officers’ wives who’d sprained their ankles while skiing in the Dolomites. Later on he worked for a man who had been intelligence specialist in ’67, stationed along the wall at Checkpoint […]
My sister’s dress
Would the Prince have found Cinderella anyway, without the dress and glass slippers? Who knows. But I say, never underestimate the power of one good dress. For me, it was my sister’s dress—not even mine. Mother made it from looking at a photograph in Vogue magazine. She sewed two hours a day, five days a […]
Newton’s third law
It was cool and clear, a perfect October day in Houston. Darla enjoyed the yard work, mowing and cleaning out the flower beds, raking it all together in a tidy pile and sacking it for the trash. She borrowed lopping shears from the man next door and cut off some low branches in the tree […]
Confession
Rose Martha Sims was sick to her stomach with worry. Seven weeks had passed since she sent off a story to the confession magazine. She’d mailed it from another town, fearful that someone at her little post office would notice her name on the envelope. Now she was nervously watching for the return envelope to […]
What Santa Knows
Corporal Cameron Daniels bought the bicycle in St. Louis. Maybe it was the last one in town and maybe he paid too much for it, but what he had in his pocket was too much money. Better to spend it all, he thought, than to get rolled in the alley. The only thing he’d bought […]
Power Trip
If Delano hadn’t been so tired, maybe it would have worked out differently. But the clerk was rude to all the customers in front of her, and then when he rang up her gallon jug of milk and loaf of bread, dish-washing soap, can of automatic transmission fluid, and two Butterfingers, the total was wrong. […]
Big Orange
The sound came from far off, and woke him in the small hours. It got louder and louder until the familiar whumpwhumpwhump crossed over in a screaming roar that vibrated everything in his house. “Hang on!” he shouted out loud. “Big Orange is coming. Look up, and watch the sky! They’ll be there soon.” He […]
The Errand
Sonny Callen was half-way between Griven and Illa when he pulled off to the side of the road, and put his pickup in park. He’d forgotten why he was driving to Illa. “Confound It and Thunderation” he said, pounding the steering wheel, which was strong language for Sonny. He got out of his pickup and […]