Monthly Archives: September 2012

Word Count:  318 There has been an explosion. I am afraid my children are dead. I’ve cried out for them and they would answer me if they could. And the baby, she would be crying, screaming from hunger alone. I … Continue reading →

Word Count:  362 In the woods only the cave was off-limits. So the cave was where the boys went. Two best friends since forever. Same block, same school, same church, and same set of problems: an older brother who did … Continue reading →

Word Count:  318 Gavin told his best friend Eddie  that he’d share half his last gummy worm, lie to cover to his mother, jump in and save him from a bear. Eddie said yeah, he would too. It happened that … Continue reading →

Word Count:  237 I don’t think she understood the lie of mirrors. That what she thought she saw in perfect clarity was in reverse. A benign half-smile to her was seen as smirking by the global eye. A wink she … Continue reading →

Word Count:  359 She escaped every night through the window high up in her room. Holding her breath as she swam through the pane, leaving small whorls in the glass. By day she would watch the birds flying, people emerge … Continue reading →

Word Count:  436 It was his job to go out and pick apples. He moved his stepladder around each tree like a shadow on a sundial. It would take him all day to pick three. Every day for the month … Continue reading →

Word Count:  522 It’s not like he had no idea it could happen, been unaware or in some lover’s form of denial. It hung like a large shade tree over their lives every day. Her husband was bound to find … Continue reading →

Word Count:  422 Today I went to shop at all my usual Friday spots. I’d sliced my nose off from my face last night. I wondered if someone might notice. Say Oh my God what happened? or Are you okay? … Continue reading →

Word Count:  436 She was old, stingy-mean with her money. Wore thin cotton dresses covered with flowers that once had been blue. Kept her cookie jar filled with freshly baked oatmeal or chocolate chip. In a hug, she smelled like … Continue reading →

Word Count:  383 She hated the chickens. Hated the bees. Hated the bees the most. When they’d met he had called himself a gentleman farmer. She thought that meant tomatoes and peppers and beans. By the time he took her … Continue reading →