Author: literallystories2014

All Stories, General Fiction

Chasing Sleep on a Hot Summer Night in Gaza by L.F. Khouri

literallystories2014

It’s a scorcher of a summer night in Gaza City and Fadi lies naked in bed, sweating buckets in the dark. His mother shouts something from the kitchen, her voice bouncing off the walls, mixing with the clanging of pots and pans. From the bedroom, his father’s reply is a muffled murmur, drowned out by the blaring TV. A stray dog barks outside, and soon a few others join in from a distance, their barks blending together like a chorus of sirens.

Continue reading “Chasing Sleep on a Hot Summer Night in Gaza by L.F. Khouri” →
All Stories, General Fiction

What I’ll Lose by Phebe Jewell

literallystories2014

The lady in the pink dress wants to save me. Her soft eyes wet, she reaches for me, hungry to share her joy. She steps closer, hand on my shoulder now, and pulls me to her. But I don’t like people touching me without asking. Jesus is knocking at the door of my heart. Let Him in. Everyone at the Holy Redeemer Revival wants me to say yes. I step back. What if He doesn’t like what He sees inside?

Continue reading “What I’ll Lose by Phebe Jewell” →
All Stories, General Fiction

The Confrontation by Tom Sheehan

literallystories2014

“You have any family, Hook, if that’s what they call you.” The heavy set man asking questions had been around for at least half a century, carried serious eyes, some obvious facial scars marking the years, but those remnants didn’t appear to be from life-threatening situations. Warmth, in no certain terms or applications, issued from his person as well as from his voice, a long-time cowboy tone carrying his words with a semi-hoarse baritone as though it came from deep in his chest and not through regular vocal channels. A cough would not have been so deeply issued.

Continue reading “The Confrontation by Tom Sheehan” →
All Stories, General Fiction

I’d Rather Have a Chocolate Bar by Frances Gaudiano

literallystories2014

Sophie’s yoga teacher had raved about the cacao workshop. It was to be held at the yoga studio on a Saturday afternoon. Sophie had started taking yoga because she thought it would be good for her anxiety levels. She wasn’t sure a cacao festival would help with that. Didn’t cacao wake you up? Sophie didn’t want to wake up. She wanted to go to sleep – for weeks, maybe even a month or two. She had terrible insomnia. But Juniper (was that her real name?) the yoga teacher, insisted that the workshop would open up Sophie’s heart and help her to overcome all her worries. In one afternoon? That would be great and a lot cheaper than four or five years of therapy.

Continue reading “I’d Rather Have a Chocolate Bar by Frances Gaudiano” →
All Stories, General Fiction

Jimmy, the Architect by Dan Shpyra

literallystories2014

As he was falling from the rooftop, Jimmy`s whole life flashed before his eyes. That is why it was even more upsetting. A gap year in Australia, a few good years at college, and a job until he finds something better. After his skull would have crushed against asphalt, his brain splashed all over the road, and his broken limbs would be packed in a plastic bag, would there be a grand procession? Or, perhaps, just his parents and two or three friends would mourn him for a month. Falling, Jimmy knew: the latter was the case. They would have to use vague language during his eulogy sprinkled with cliches, for there was not much to tell.

Continue reading “Jimmy, the Architect by Dan Shpyra” →
All Stories, General Fiction

They Say He Was a Biter By Hari Khalsa

literallystories2014

The office was dark except for the bluish glow of two monitors which illuminated Hari Deva Singh’s wrinkled face and long scraggly white beard, like a twenty-first century wizard coding his newest spell. He sat back and scrolled to the top of this night’s Facebook post, furrowing his brow as he read through what he had written.

Continue reading “They Say He Was a Biter By Hari Khalsa” →
All Stories, General Fiction

Dress For Success by Stephanie Greene

literallystories2014

Caroline bought her dachshund a Harvard coat. It was maroon polar fleece with an oversize insignia. Forty-five bucks to impress her new boyfriend’s family.

But Ruckus was not Harvard material. Tailgating at The Game, he yanked free, barked at babies, and absconded with a turkey drumstick. When she caught him, Caroline couldn’t leave him in the car, afraid he’d open the hamper or attack the upholstery, so she walked him around the roaring stadium, waxing philosophical. Kip and his parents went inside.

Continue reading “Dress For Success by Stephanie Greene” →
All Stories, sunday whatever

Sunday Whoever

literallystories2014

This week’s Whoever has been with us since May 2021 when he had the beautiful All My Darlings Waiting published. Now it’s time to find out more about this writer of poignant, lyrical work. We sent Antony a list of questions and his responses are as thoughtful as his fiction writing. If you haven’t read any of Antony Osgood’s work you really are missing a treat.

Continue reading “Sunday Whoever” →
All Stories, General Fiction

Frankie and the Wild Man by Marco Etheridge

literallystories2014

The wild man sat in his lawn chair and tried to ignore the small boy lurking behind the shabby travel trailer. The chair was made from aluminum tubing and woven plastic webbing. The coarse webbing sometimes pinched the back of the wild man’s thighs, but he was accustomed to this. He’d owned the chair for a very long time. The sneaking little brat, however, was a new and unwelcome annoyance.

Continue reading “Frankie and the Wild Man by Marco Etheridge” →
All Stories, Fantasy

After Dark by Nico Gurdjian

literallystories2014

Ida hates the sunset. She also has a profound dislike for the ocean, Greece, Italian villas, and all 30,000 islands of the Pacific Ocean. But every morning she wakes up to one of them, rotating views out her window: a nightmare cycle of 5 star resort views. Sometimes she thinks she is already dead, stuck in a penitentiary of hell’s ennui where every day is more passive then the last.

Continue reading “After Dark by Nico Gurdjian” →