Well here we go again, another week, another round-up.
We’re very busy with those who are still trying to hang onto their New Year’s resolution but we know that come the middle of February, most will give up.
Continue reading “Week 467 – Why Not Try Brain Surgery, News And I Love The Daily Record.”
Henry loved school; it was his favorite thing in the whole world. He was only ten years old, but he was ahead of the rest of his class. The teachers had said so themselves, he heard it in their hushed conversations, he read it on the stacks of papers they keep on their desks. It made him feel good, he felt proud.
Continue reading “Lions and Zebras by Charlize L. Love”
I’m well aware there are endless possibilities, limitless universes where people live rather than die, where situations work out rather than fall apart, where superb memories are made rather than never created, and where love blossoms rather than weakens. I’m unsure how to reach these complex destinations, but I know they’re out there, situated somewhere on a higher dimension or hidden behind the veil we call reality. They conceal all the could-have-beens, circumstances that might have occurred if given the opportunity but, of course, never came to fruition due to some seen or unseen event…
Continue reading “The Could-Have-Beens by Mason Yates”
When Sally saw the ad in the free newspaper “Your Town” she knew that she had to check it out. “All around assistant, cook, accountant, teacher of tech. Low pay, but free room and board.” She was currently barely able to get by as a production assistant on a local television station. Without a small bequest from her late aunt, she couldn’t afford food and rent. The parents lived in Spain and she hadn’t seen them for ten years. Her financial situation made her feel like a child even though she was thirty-three. The Lakeside address was pretty ritzy, which was another plus.
Continue reading “The Assistant by Doug Hawley”
Two old lady best friends stand in front of the Green Lizard Lounge , est. 1955. Angie is tall with ample boobs. She has silver hair piled on top of her head stylishly. Lucy’s bleached curly hair makes her look younger than her 84 years. Neither of them dress like old ladies. Angie wears leggings, a black and white striped knit top, and black glittery Tom’s. Lucy wears a denim dress and sandals. They both shop at vintage thrift stores.
Continue reading “Green Lizard Lounge by Nina Welch”
Connor moves his mind in rhythm to the speed of his travel, his thoughts whirl round, the city scene flows by his eyes. That’s all it is though, a passing. He keeps counting. He’s made seven hundred fifty-eight steps since he stepped off the bus.
He feels best swinging in his hammock home below the trees. The hammock’s sway copies a rocking cradle, and he feels a child again there, a kid in a twenty-four-year-old body.
Continue reading “Connor Walks the Musqueam by Harrison Kim”
Our friend Tom Sheehan does everything in a big yet dignified way. He has the most stories and years and (probably reruns). And it is from his sizable pile of successful stories (gleaned from a long and successful life) we once again run Recall and Reveille.
Continue reading “Sunday Rerun: Recall and Reveille by Tom Sheehan”
When I was in high school A Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin was considered the greatest rock song (greatest as in “progressive”–whose heyday was from the mid-sixties through the mid-seventies). Anyway, that’s what the guys on the FM radio said. At the start of this month (fifty years later, on the station that’s always playing where I work) Seattle’s “Home of Classic Rock,” KZOK, again voted it number one (narrowly edging out Bohemian Rhapsody, which finished second for the fifth year in a row). For the record, the Queen song is truly an innovative thing–it blew minds when it came around in 1976; and to be honest, I have always disliked Stairway. Fairly or otherwise I associate it with the slacker in an army coat who stank of weed and sat behind me in Social Studies class. He always fell asleep and I had to whack him on the head with exam papers when it was time to pass them back. A minor annoyance in my life, yet I have yet to forget it.
Continue reading “Week 466: Greatness Schmerateness; Five New Stories and Dueling Old Lists”
I feel like a stranger on the bus. Getting on at the airport, the bus makes the long trip into the city, picking up workers, university students, school children, and Janice.
Janice was seated near the front of the bus and as each person got onto the bus and made their way past the driver, looking for a seat, Janice made eye contact with them. And before they could look away, not wanting to engage, she sprang her question at them.
“Are you looking forward to Christmas?”
Continue reading “Are you looking forward to Christmas? By Penelope Jackson”
I’m parked on her street in front of the house. Hesitating. It’s just my third day back. What will Francesca do? I might have waited even longer if it weren’t for the thought of her sister, Lisa, who always greeted me with a hug and a smile.
Continue reading “Dry by Christopher W. Hall”
