Category: Fiction

  • Her First International Flight

    “Caleb.” Her whisper carried through their empty house. “Caleb? Can you hear me?” The house was dark, with creepy shadows dancing on the walls from the yellowish streetlight outside. Caleb and Kassie gathered the last of their things, doing their best to finish moving before it got dark. Kassie hated this house, hated it when…

  • Because of a Pepsi

    Sitting at Barry’s Bar and Grill, Bonnie brought Bruce an ice-cold Coke in a 16oz glass bottle. Condensation formed on the outside, which is why Bonnie had a paper napkin wrapped around the base of the glass. That and Bonnie didn’t feel like getting reprimanded by Bruce. Before that, Bonnie and Bruce rode the bus…

  • No Rides – Ever! Finale

    “Whew. That was a close one, dude. Wasn’t it, Tommy?” Preacher started to pull out another Marlboro light, ready to spark the lighter. “Don’t even think about it. Do that again and I will make a point of dropping you on I-55. Late or not. I won’t even mind being ten or fifteen minutes late…

  • No Rides – Ever! Part II

    The ride to the interstate was short but quiet, Preacher halfway leaning back in the reclining seat. “Not to make you nervous or anything, but how many times have you been pulled over?” “You have what?” Tommy did his best to concentrate on his northbound lane of Interstate 55. After 8 p.m., traffic lightened to…

  • No Rides – Ever

    “I don’t give rides to hitchers,” said Tommy Granier, an over-the-road driver for Pepsi-Co. A big guy, Tommy wasn’t prone to giving anyone a ride, let alone friends and family, even though he’d been a pushover to his two nieces who asked him to let them ride up to Saint Louis Lambert International Airport. Tommy…

  • But I’m telling you, Mike! It’s SPAM!

    “Mike, this is the third time I’ve received a message from JX_DTWN,” Jared grumbled. “I think it might be spam.” He scowled at the screen, rereading the post from Nextdoor. Drumming his fingers on the desk, he looked up at a poster hanging over his side of a shared desk, which read, “Life would be…

  • Commotion Outside Vrbinski, Neil, and Kurt – Part II

    “It’s none of your business,” Emily hissed at Amy. “If you think I’m going to sit down and talk to the police, you are even crazier than Brian is!” Amy nodded, watching two officers climb the stairs. Brian breezed right by both young men, smiling as he went, making it to the Maserati before they…

  • Commotion Outside Vrbinski, Neil, and Kurt

    A commotion outside the door of Vrbinski, Neil, and Kurt brought all the work inside the law firm office to a complete stop. No typing. No talking. Even Ms. Amy Kurt, starting to make her usual vanilla latte, stopped dead in the tracks from tamping her espresso. Voices on the other side of the heavy…

  • Ms. Francelli, VP of Human Relations, Graymer Inc.

    When she stood on the other side of her desk, it intimidated everyone on staff. Mickey worked hard for her position at Graymer Incorporated. It took years of 80-plus hour weeks, countless hours in pointless meetings, and naive supervisors that she knew, without a doubt, that she was above them in intellect. Armed with only…

  • Portuguese Divider

    1987. President Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” It was also the same year Mr. Martim Silva, an English teacher at California High School, started his first day of class poking fun at his culture and heritage.   True to teachers’ style of the time, he wore tan-colored slacks, ironed with tight creases,…

  • Cheetos Trucks Infestation

    “I don’t go out much anymore, Will. The Cheetos trucks I told you about? They are coming more frequently.” Jerry crushed his cigarette in the overfull ashtray after taking one more drag. “Bringing in more and more of those . . . I’m not sure what you call ‘em, Will.” Staring into space, he stopped…

  • Bobby J.’s Alleged Theft

    “I ain’t the one!” His lisp and raspy voice caught me off guard. “You heard me, boss. It ain’t me. I ain’t the one who did it. And you know it!” Dealing with homelessness was something Scott was familiar with, but this man, who went by Bobby J., wasn’t the sort of person he was…

  • Shopping Cart

    “I don’t understand what this has to do with the communications director position. Why exactly are we going to Walmart?” Scott sat in the passenger seat of the Model X while the interviewer, Fran Travers, drove, pulling into the farther spot from the front doors of the retail giant. “Because I need to pick up…

  • Cassandra’s Piercings

    Piercings have never been my jam. Do they bother me? Never have. Never will. Even though I’ve seen my fair share of piercings that not only look like they were painful to get, but they are obviously infected! I’m trying to figure out what kind of person lets an infection get bad enough that the…

  • Wait . . . What did you say?

    Christopher felt lightheaded. The room spun. His friends’ voices came through like echoing waves, first loud, then soft. Sweat beaded across his forehead and then on his neck. That small trickle down his neck itched, bringing him back to reality. Back to his friends and the conversation at hand. “Hold on. Say that again.” Christopher’s…

  • Addison’s Two Weeks’ Notice

    Addison was a solid employee who worked for two years at Halftime, a nonprofit organization serving special needs kids. Addison knew all about Halftime, having a younger brother on the spectrum. Addison’s family consisted of her, her brother Michael, and Addison’s mom, Francis. Everyone who knew her called her Fran or Franny. She worked hard,…

  • Meeting the Investigator

    “That is the last thing I’m going to do!” Every person sitting in the waiting room heard the slam of the receiver. “Janice, get in here. Now!” The voice inside the office shouted, startling two of the three people in the waiting room. A plumber wearing bib overalls scrubbed his five-o’clock stubble. If Don Johnson…

  • Tetrak 329

    In less than one hour, police and security cleared the block without one arrest or detainment. Not one person balked at the authorities, pushed back against security, or demanded their civil rights were violated. Newspaper reporters, journalists from various news agencies, several magazines, and three network television stations all followed instructions, with no one pushing…

  • Wrong Place. Wrong Time.

    Glancing down at the gravel parking lot he noticed a shellcasing, kicking it away from him. One casing wasn’t all that strange. Then, one turned into two. Two turned into four. Suddenly Lance realized he was standing in a pile of shells, the brass scattered through the gravel. Smelling gunsmoke is what dropped him to…

  • Aftermath

    Broken glass. Various parts of the Element, the Ford truck, and the other two cars, both passenger vehicles, strewn through all the lanes, the bumper and headlamps from the Element lying in front of it. So, here’s my take on what happened, all formulated in less than a minute, right before I heard the sirens…