Category: General Fiction

All Stories, General Fiction

A Diner and The Cello by Tina Klimas

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From outside the coffee shop across the road, Julia watches Charlie Miller leave the diner. It starts to snow again and if she narrows her vision to exclude all else, she can almost believe that she is looking at an idyllic scene. Snowflakes drift softly through the golden glow emanating from the diner window. Waitresses move about inside with coffee pots, amid the chattering, happy diners. Charlie Miller, in jeans and cowboy boots, plaid flannel shirt poking out from a nondescript brown jacket, completes this perfect portrait of nostalgic Americana. But then he pauses outside the diner and crosses his arms in a tight knot across his chest.  He stares straight ahead, as if he is viewing hell. The image of blood and clotted brain-matter leaps up before her eyes. She stuffs it back into the box too small to hold it, only to wait for the demented jack-in-the-box to spring again.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

City Prairies by Jeffrey Kulik

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I remember being ten, eleven years old maybe, and running around in the summers when my old man was drunk off his ass on the couch in the frontroom, and my ma would open the back porch door and tell me to get out of the house for a couple of hours so she could get some peace and quiet.  I would round up some other neighborhood kids—it didn’t really matter which ones, though usually Benzo and Pooce were along for the ride—and just run out as far as we could get from the block without interfering with anyone else’s turf.  At that time, 1960, 1961, there were still a lot of what we used to call prairies around—empty lots.  The lots could fool you if you weren’t careful.  The grass in them was tall, tall enough that from the street it looked like you could just run right across them to the alley behind.  But, really, there was a slope down from the sidewalk and another back up to the alley so the middle of the yard might be four feet or more down.  You could run into one and be up to your armpits in weeds and get yourself a broken ankle to boot.  That was something you learned as a little kid running through the neighborhood.  So, when we’d come across a prairie on one of our runs, we’d be careful, especially if we didn’t know it real good, to go in sideways, one foot at a time, or better yet find a big rock or a stone and throw it in and see how far down it went before we jumped in.  This was also true in cases of snow.  Just something we learned.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Motherliness by Fredrick K Foote

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My mother’s a piece of work. She’s an avant-garde throwback to prehistoric times. She’s a ruthless diva of danger. I love her and fear her in nearly equal measure. She has taught me valuable and obscure lessons. The following teachings standout at this point in my life.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction, Writing

White Is Best by Hugh Cron. Warning – Strong Adult Content.

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I wanted to drink its blood.

Because it never wanted to know me.

But I didn’t bite.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

New Zealand’s Immortal Citizen by Frank Beyer

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A story about life extension

Wanaka on a September day, the sun is shining and its fifteen degrees Celsius. The ski season is over in this resort town, but the mountains surrounding Lake Wanaka still have a good covering of snow. The lake itself is of a bright blue seen in New Zealand’s South Island. The brilliance of the colour depends on the minerals present. Outside the town, near the pepply lakefront or up in the lower reaches of the mountains, are a number of architectural oddities. Dream houses of billionaires with vision but sometimes lacking architectural good taste. Squashed domes and rhombohedrons are favourite shapes, many of these houses are now abandoned. Unlike like a lot of the planet, the population here has never been high, no squatters have moved in to enjoy faded luxury. Foreigners, mainly Americans, have been building bunkers here for sixty years – but in the last five people have actually started to live in them. Unamused locals have observed the long preparation for the apocalypse has finally caused it to happen. Some of the wealthy, unable to let go of their mansions, have built bunkers right underneath them… Peter, a longtime resident of Wanaka, is one of these.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Fast Train to Burton by Matthew Roy Davey

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As he emerged from the subway, George shaded his eyes, blinking into the morning sun.  At the top of the steps he paused, glancing around the island platform.  It was busy and the benches all seemed taken.  A little further on he found a space between a middle-aged woman and a gnarled old man.  It wasn’t hard to see why the space was free, but George’s head was spinning and he had to sit down.  He nodded as the man’s yellowy grey eyes met his for an instant.  The man folded his newspaper to make space before hunching his shoulders and continuing to read.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Impact by Hugh Cron – Adult Content.

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“Someone once said that life prepares you for what it throws at you.

Man O’ fuck! That’s a very wise and comforting thought for coping.

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