Short Stories Category        

Red Flags

Red Flags  -- photo by John B. at JohnBdigital.com

You never know what you’ll do when you when you’re consumed by the fever of lust. Maybe you forget who are, maybe you confuse red flags with the burning flame of desire. Who knows? Here’s just one example I’ve heard. Check it out:

The boy and the girl stand in the back of the auditorium, next to each other. They are supposed to be looking straight ahead at the choir director, like the good boys and girls are doing. But apparently, the boy and the girl don’t want to be counted amongst those obedient ones, because they’re not looking at the choir director, little rebellious devils that they are. They’re flirting with each other, and only a blind person would miss it. Check out the moves they’re making.   Read more….. »

Freefall

Hey, have you ever done anything really stupid in your life? Well, that’s a stupid question. Of course you have, everyone has, and if you tell me otherwise, that’s just BS. Here’s one time it happened to me.   Read more….. »

Digital Scream

The world of search engines is just too tempting to resist. The resolution to put the past behind you with its scary demons and skeletons in the closet is a weak foe next to the ease by which you can start it all over. Just plug in a name, restart the same resentment, the same grudge, all over again.   Read more….. »

Other People’s Stuff

Well, you just never know what some people will say in public. Hey, let’s take a listen together, shall we?

“….and until the trial, if they even see the car on campus, they can call the police. It’s like four weeks from now. I don’t own any, and I don’t carry it on me. No, I only smoke other people’s stuff, so I tried to tell the court that if it was in my car, it wasn’t mine.   Read more….. »

All The Pretty Girls

The watcher sits down on the park bench that overlooks Main Street. It’s a nice day to be out, eighty-five degrees or so. He’s brought his camera today, the one with the long black lens. It sits on his lap, ready for action. It’s a nice day, after all. People go outside when the weather is nice. They dress for summer then. The watcher loves when that happens.

All the pretty girls, they would be out too. This is why the watcher is here today.   Read more….. »

The Price You Made Me Pay

I drive around in my Mustang, hoping to forget a chick like you. I gun the engine, flooring out of the suburban dregs of strip malls with their cardboard pizza and greasy Chinese food. I push past all the ants who’ve been swallowed up by the machine as they come and go from their daytime routine of mindlessness in the factories they call Real Life. Finally, I’m by the ocean, cruising for miles and miles alongside the ravages of the sea, the only place I felt free when you met me.   Read more….. »

You Have All The Time In the World

Have you ever heard of the bucket list? Do you have one, and are you working on it? Hey, the end of the world is coming. You just never know. But some people have other opinions on the matter. Sandra has some opinions on what you should with your life. This is what she’d like to tell you. Sandra, it’s all yours now.

Oh, thank you. I really have been sitting on the edge of my seat on this one. For heaven’s sake, I am just so tired of hearing about this bucket list thing. It’s all I hear people talking about when someone dies or gets sick. You never know how much time you have, do what you can today and not put it off to tomorrow, goodness, it just gets so silly and ridiculous.   Read more….. »

An Ordinary Wednesday

It’s just another day, just an ordinary Wednesday. The usual anchors on the usual morning news say the usual jokes as Peter gets himself off to work. He ignores the news guys as he usually does. They are usually just so silly, anyway. He kisses his wife Wendy before he leaves for work.   Read more….. »

For A Moment, Peace

She’s alone now in her bedroom for the night, deep in a church basement. It feels like a sanctuary after the way she’s been living lately. The place is still filled with the fog of cigarette smoke from the others who have all gone home now.   Read more….. »

Even The Hot Dogs Are Special In Manhattan

It’s all the rage to get yourself noticed in Manhattan. You make it here, you make it-well, you know how the song goes. Cliches are the enemy of the writer, but everything about a literary gathering in New York is drenched with cliches. It would be more of a surprise if it were in Omaha, unless you were Omaha resenting the hick stereotype of your not so little town.   Read more….. »

The Bride Wore Black

It is past midnight now, but she refuses to go to sleep in the bed that mocks her with insomnia. Sleep is something that has been stolen from her, another one of those ordinary things that say her life is not like others. But she is beyond caring that her circumstances have put her past even the fringe of belonging.   Read more….. »

A Cigarette Away From Oblivion

He lay on the hotel bed with her, the room smelling rancidly of the sex they just had. It wasn’t a cheap hotel room, she wasn’t a cheap trick, but the whole thing smelled cheap. He wasn’t even sure what her name was. Randi, the escort service had said. But who knew. He’d lied about his name to her, and once you lied yourself, you could never be sure of the anyone else’s truth.   Read more….. »

A Strange Way to Declare Freedom

After all the fighting, all they wanted was peace. Peace was something to fight for, so they’ve been told. Fight until you get the goal you seek. But peace seems too far away to even be real anymore. Yet without the fighting, peace would never come, or so they’ve been told.   Read more….. »

The Dancer

The dancer sits on the ground, stretching her body across her leg; the flexibility she laces upon her own limb is a natural extension of the moves she has taught herself over the years. Her legs are spread almost completely to the sides. She is supple now. This is something she always does. So much peace emanates from this position, the grace she serves to you makes her seem almost unreal.   Read more….. »

It’s turning grey out there again

It’s another cold, rainy Saturday at the bookstore. It’s January, and the holiday rush is over. But it’s warm in the store. Patrons line up in the aisles and the cafe like refugees who have survived an onslaught. Perhaps they have. After all, it is after the holidays.   Read more….. »