All Stories, General Fiction

All These Dreams and Tomorrow Too by Leila Allison

Words cannot adequately express the giddy joy I experienced while I stood on the ferry’ s bow, alone with my “escort” (an amiable deckhand twice my size, half my age), as the vessel glided swiftly across the gunmetal Puget Sound toward Charleston, where the Law awaited me with open bracelets. The early spring sun made a lovely show of going down behind the Olympic Mountains–all dreampurple and pastel poetry. It had been ages since I had felt a sunset unfettered by loss. I was was further gladdened when my escort shooed off some fool who had come out of the cabin to capture (thus desecrate) the sunset on his phone. There was a reason we were alone; that reason (also, twice my size, half my age) was inside the cabin holding one of those phony “Blu-Ice” bags to the spot on her meaty chin where I had landed a right cross just a few minutes before.

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All Stories, Fantasy

Living Silver by M. Jacobs

I have a brother who isn’t a boy at all, but a fish.

When I tell people this, most of them chuckle politely, their bustling minds already flicking past the youthful imaginings of the charming little boy. That is, until they’ve seen him with their own eyes. My brother with his transparent fins and gills cut into the side of his neck and of course- the sea of shimmering scales that secretly hold all the colours of the world.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Humour, Short Fiction

The Potato Grabbers by Robert John Miller

“I’ll grab the corn and you grab the potatoes,” Poncho yelled to Julia. Julia was wearing her wedding dress, full train and veil, to save time. She wouldn’t have to change when they returned.

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

Anna by David Douglas-Pennant

Anna was not one to look twice at anything or anyone. Everyone looked twice at her though. They couldn’t help it.

Most people don’t bother looking twice at insignificant details, so unsurprisingly she wasn’t particularly popular. People thought Anna was either arrogant, or stupid, or both. But I knew that when she did look twice at something, even more rarely someone, that look could take hours, it could take days. I’ve spent my whole life waiting for her to look at me like that.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Through the Curtain by Diane M Dickson

The police showed her his watch. His watch and wallet, and his wedding ring. No matter how much Amy asked to see her husband’s body, they dissuaded her. None of them actually said that he was unrecognisable because of his injuries but, through the shock and horror of it all, the message was eventually received. She picked up the timepiece she had bought a couple of years earlier. The engraving on the back ‘All My Love Stuart – your Amy’ left no room for doubt. His wallet held some money, his bank cards. His driving licence was missing, that was how they had found her.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Minimal Loss by James Freeze

While thumbing through a magazine in my doctor’s office waiting room I came across a picture of a unique contemporary structure, sitting on a hillside by the sea. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, but it sparked memories of my past. At eighty years of age, I must have many? I hope I do—I think—I’m not sure anymore.

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All Stories, General Fiction

There in the Beginning by Caitlin Mclinden

“You going to the disco on Friday?”

“I dunno. The last one I went to was really bad. I ended up sitting in the toilets waiting for my mum to get me.”

“Why don’t we go? We can meet up before and go there together. It might be good, and we can leave if it’s not.”

“Eh, all right. You come over to mine, like, an hour before. Okay?”

“Okay.”

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All Stories, General Fiction

A Turtle’s Farewell by Lisa M DiFruscio

The chair belonged to the table set I inherited when my mother passed away.  It didn’t fit anywhere in the house, not in the kitchen, not in any corner space where it could be made useful. So when my partner decided to claim it for his own, the chair ended up in the garage, at a new table, where it was sat upon and enjoyed, as a resting place, a work place, a smoking place, a social place, and finally, his quiet place. I would hear the legs of the chair scrape periodically when I was in the kitchen, and although it was buffered by the door, I came to know the squeak as a prelude that soon I would have to stop what I was doing.  Interrupting myself was voluntary.  He would stomp into the kitchen and re-fill his coffee cup.  I would generously get out of his way.

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