Sorrowful - page 2 - all works

Short Fiction

Inheritance

Joan feels remorse for having hated her toes most of her life. She inherited them from her grandmother, who had hated them too. Her grandmother had cried at the swimming pool on Joan's 11th birthday ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Slice of Life Portrait 3 min

Out of Reach

Julie Wilkerson

He was reaching for the top shelf then stopped. He moved his eyes to the next, lower shelf down and chose a jar. His hair was sheet white and his body frame resembled my father, tall and heavy set ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Suspense & Mystery Quirky Portrait 2 min Mature Audience

Trespassing—a Criminal Offense

Mark Budman

The dryad who lives inside the oak tree has been terrorizing the condo building dwellers for generations. She throws acorns and pours sap and drops pollen on their cars, and causes severe allergies ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Love & Loss 5 min

Bar Lines

Kris Loughlin

The first time it really hits me, I'm staring at the peeling paint on the doorknob.
I long ago memorized the feeling of coming home – the click of my key in the door, the scent of Mom's stir fry on ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

God is Greater

AJ Rocca

"In their search for ‘devil's gold,' as they call it, about 300 miners make a daily climb two miles up the mountain, then head downward more than 900 yards into the volcano, where the sulfu ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Slice of Life 2 min Mature Audience

Always

Daniel Wallace

They went out for a coffee and then the next night went out for dinner and the next they didn't go anywhere but to her apartment where they had a massively wonderful night in bed. The sex was ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 3 min Mature Audience

Chaim's Golem

Avra Margariti

I got the idea from one of your old stories. Building golems out of river mud and whatnot. Except I didn't want a golem. I just wanted you back by my side.

Peddling clayware in the sweltering ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Historical 5 min

Long Shadows

J. Anthony Hartley

I sat staring deep into the flames, listening to voices stirring the wind around me. Soft footfalls pressed through the grass stalks, rustling gently. Though I couldn't see them, I knew they were ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Nostalgia Historical 3 min Mature Audience

Eggs

Andrew Stancek

Aunt Mila was the one collecting the eggs every morning but the chore is now mine. We have an extra daily egg since she has flown off and Grandma uses them to bake a cake every other day. Grandpa ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Romance 1 min Mature Audience

Just Enough for Jenny

Jennifer Shelby

While pulling lobster pots from the bay, Finn chanced upon the mermaid. His mind was on Jenny, dark with worry, when the mermaid appeared alongside his boat. An old friend once told him of a legend ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Love & Loss 1 min Mature Audience

Curious Facts About Octopuses (And You and I)

Avra Margariti

1. Octopuses have nine brains.
Me? I wouldn't want so many organs with which to overthink and fly into hysterics. You always ran from those—took the car and left me alone for hours, sometimes ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Suspense & Mystery 4 min Mature Audience

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Cathy Tenzo

Once you become visible, it's hard to disappear into the shadows again, but Hank White was doing his level best. His life depended on it. People looked right through you when you were flipping ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Humor 4 min Mature Audience

Cora

Karen Heuler

"Who are you?" her mother asked.
"I'm your daughter, Alice."
"I know that. But I mean, who are you?" Her mother's eyes locked onto hers; she was clutching Alice's eyes. What did she mean ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Humor Portrait 3 min Mature Audience

The Secret Rules for Children of Priests

Zachary Kellian

Rule Number 1: When asked about your parentage, give suitably vague answers.

It was Jimmy Doogan, a boorish kid with freckles spread like flak across his face, who had been the first to ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Love & Loss 4 min Mature Audience

Munchkin

Kenneth Margolin

When did my heart harden? How did empathy slip away? Dr. Lindelson pondered these questions in the spacious office where she had practiced psychotherapy for forty years, since she completed he ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 5 min Mature Audience

My Father the Somniloquist

Rosaleen Lynch

My father was a somniloquist; he only talked to me in his sleep. Lured at night by his one-sided conversation one room over, I would escape the cot I'd grown out of, gaze at my sleeping mother, and ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait Magical Realism 2 min Mature Audience

Francis Valencia Ortiz

Martin Hill Ortiz

For all his life, Frank had been at war with the willows. They sprouted in and around the stream, clogged the irrigation ditches, and choked off the water flow.
His land, a narrow plain between ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

Displaced

Sarah Blake

When they first moved in, the forest was big and lush behind the apartment building. It was the entire view through the kitchen window, standing at the sink washing dishes. Birds were often in the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Suspense & Mystery 5 min Mature Audience

When the Door Is Blue

Koji A. Dae

The second house on the left. If the door is blue, you're welcome. Red, you've come too early. Green, too late.

The meaningless chant comes to me whole. I can't remember where I've heard it, but ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 3 min Mature Audience

The Pugilist in Repose on His Porch, Most Sundays

Christopher X. Ryan

The moments of lucidity were rarer and rarer, but when they came, he regaled me with tales of swallowed teeth, basement brawls, and AIDS tests administered at midnight in ramshackle midtown health ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Inheritance

Out of Reach

Trespassing—a Criminal Offense

Bar Lines

God is Greater

Always

Chaim's Golem

Long Shadows

Eggs

Just Enough for Jenny

Curious Facts About Octopuses (And You and I)

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Cora

The Secret Rules for Children of Priests

Munchkin

My Father the Somniloquist

Francis Valencia Ortiz

Displaced

When the Door Is Blue

The Pugilist in Repose on His Porch, Most Sundays