Short Fictions - Short Édition - page 14 - all works

Short Fiction

It Began With Bananas

January 26, 1906

Forty-seven days have passed and the bananas in my kitchen are still green. They remain untouched and unmoved since I brought them home from market. To my eye they appea ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 5 min

The old priest considered the cast-iron oil pot sitting in the corner of the immaculate kitchen. It was heavy, and his back hurt.
The trees growing on the canyon walls whispered to him. "Prepare ... [+]

Short Fiction

Magical Realism Suspense & Mystery 3 min Mature Audience

Cracks in the Wall

Die Booth

"It's an old building," Becky said, when Peter asked her.
"Do you get them in your apartment, too?"
She'd given him a look, then, as if she thought he was trying to score an invite into he ... [+]

Short Fiction

Nostalgia Portrait 3 min

Trampoline

Ulrica Hume

My new neighbor was a hoarder. She hoarded everything. Crystals, pink bakery boxes—she even took in children. Each one was flawed: too restless, not bright enough, a daisy-shaped head. The sound of ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Sci-Fi & Fantasy 4 min Mature Audience

Coping with Change

Susan O'Neal

The seventh day in my new flat, I found a worm in the fridge. It was flat, black and dead. I quite like interesting animals, but not this one – it looked remarkably like a leech. Where had it come ... [+]

Short Fiction

Nostalgia Modern Love 2 min

Underground

Sara Wilson

It had been nearly fourteen years, but there you were on my morning commute. On your way to work like nothing had happened. Both of us on our ways to work as if nothing had happened.

You looked ... [+]

Short Fiction

Nostalgia Romance 2 min Mature Audience

The Sunshine State

Laura Bates

Our new house really felt like a home, with cockroaches and two pit bulls and a palm tree and a chain-link fence. On that first day, I heated up a can of kidney beans for breakfast and ate it ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Suspense & Mystery 5 min

Harnessing the Unicorn

Susan O'Neal

I reached for the control strip and tapped the edit icon. Immediately, the scene changed to a woodland, dark fir trees casting long shadows beneath a heavy winter sky. For background effect, I added ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Suspense & Mystery 4 min Mature Audience

Streets of Gold

Stephen Hundley

When I get home from Sunday Service, I strip my pressed white shirt in the living room. I step out of my slacks. Peel off the tight black socks. I fumble naked for my dive skin, the black and blue ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Quirky 2 min Mature Audience

Influx

Meredith Harper

The garbage can is full again. I drag it inside and empty it over the floor, adding to the foot of water already standing in the house. The bathtub and the sinks have been running nonstop fo ... [+]

Short Fiction

Nostalgia Modern Love 4 min Mature Audience

Something to Save

Catherine Averill

On his way out the door to a meeting with a client, the husband said, "We should have a baby," and the wife, pointing to one of the windows that overlooked the driveway, said, "We already have an ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Sci-Fi & Fantasy 5 min Mature Audience

The Earth is Nothing More Than A Marble

Spencer Nitkey

There is a story and it goes like this. There is a tower of brick and stone, raised up like a mountain. Its peak puts holes in the bottoms of clouds. A princess sits by the window at the top, and ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sci-Fi & Fantasy 3 min Mature Audience

Increments

Rebecca Dashiell

When there is no water left, we'll leave. Until then, we ration what we pull from the well. Three-quarters of a bucket for drinking (a full one when the day gets above 90 degrees, which is happening ... [+]

Short Fiction

Nostalgia Romance Slice of Life 4 min

Noodles for Breakfast

Richard Risemberg

When you are a competent old man who lives alone, you can eat what you want for breakfast. This morning I had noodles, or rather noodle soup, a favorite of mine for colder weather. Broth with ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 2 min Mature Audience

While We Breathe

Mountain Nose

One March afternoon in 1969 I was on the deck of a Chinese junk listening to the water clop against the wooden hull and enjoying a breeze that blew toward the South China Sea. The junk bobbed ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow 5 min Mature Audience

Call It What You Will

Donald Ryan

The doctors, explaining the consent form, referred to him as an allergen. That's the only reason he could figure they prescribed Claritin. Well, technically they didn't prescribe Claritin, being ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life 5 min

The Last Bat

Joe McGehee

It was the first time that I had ever hated the sound of my own name. "Tommy, you're up," the coach had yelled down from the entrance of the dugout. I was sitting on the end of the bench next to my ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Slice of Life 3 min

The Job Interview: Thoughts and Prayers Accepted

Lori Shandle-Fox

"Voicemail. Faaabulous. Anyway... Good morning. I've arrived. And let me tell you: There's nothing like heading to a job interview and praying to God that you don't get it. (Oh this is Amelia by the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Suspense & Mystery 3 min

The Invitation

R.L. Burke

They stood at the end of the tobacco row, just beyond where the north end of the field met the woods. They stood in the shadows, perfectly still, watching only her. They reminded her of deer: thin ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Historical Suspense & Mystery 5 min Mature Audience

Slomp

Mim Eichmann

Ain't no such word as "slomp" Jessey had scolded me just yesterday. But a crawdad pokin' outta the deep mud ditch alongside the river always made kind of a slomp sound to my ears. That's how you ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

It Began With Bananas

Rest Stop

Cracks in the Wall

Trampoline

Coping with Change

Underground

The Sunshine State

Harnessing the Unicorn

Streets of Gold

Influx

Something to Save

The Earth is Nothing More Than A Marble

Increments

Noodles for Breakfast

While We Breathe

Call It What You Will

The Last Bat

The Job Interview: Thoughts and Prayers Accepted

The Invitation

Slomp