Stories - Short Fiction Break

The Darkness of Space

“Is there anyone out there? I repeat, is there anyone out there?”

The words had become automatic and no longer held any meaning for Karl. He sprawled on his back in the middle of the darkened control room, radio receiver clutched to his mouth. He stared up at the stars through the huge window above him as he mindlessly repeated the distress message.

He had been an astronaut for many years and had long since become accustomed to the sight of the stars, but now when he had little to do but look up at them and wait for death, he was reminded how beautiful they were. Their feeble light and that of the shuttle’s emergency power was the only thing that separated him from the true darkness that the inky black sky threatened.

“I repeat, is there anyone out there? Shuttle in distress, potential loss of human life.”

Sinking Feeling

“Before you embark on your adventure, please hand me your phones and anything else you don’t want to get wet,” said the man in the sailor’s uniform. “We’ll protect your belongings while you navigate your way to safety.” He brandished a plastic bin.

James was tense.

When Hayley suggested they do an escape room, pride and insecurity kept James from telling her that being trapped against his will was essentially a waking nightmare for him. He could have said no, could have made an excuse, but he hadn’t quite figured out saying “no” to Hayley. He’d had no need to. He was crazy about her and so far “yes” had served him just fine.

Mama

Mama used that word all the time. Hearing it was just a regular part of growing up.

So I used it in Mrs. Moore’s class. Not on purpose; it just came out, you see, when I got frustrated with this kid.

As you can imagine, I ended up in the principal’s office.

“That kind of language is unacceptable, young lady,” Principal Maynard said, tapping his desk with his favorite blue pen, the one with Carver Middle School printed in white lettering on the side.

“I’ve phoned your mother,” he said, and was about to say more, but there was yelling coming from the receptionist’s desk, then Mama burst through the door.

Who’s There

How many times had I told them? They didn’t believe me. My whole family thought it was a phase, a childish trait. Every time I listened to them and forgot about it, I heard it again. It was loud and clear, unmistakable. Again, the knocking that came from inside my closet was not in my head; it was not my mind playing tricks on me. This was real.

I cried out for my mother.

Behind the Sofa

Alice sank down into the deep-red, velvety, cotton-wool-comfy sofa. On a small table to her side were all the necessary provisions for an evening’s TV viewing: a bottle of Pinot Noir, some nuts, some chocolate, and a large box of popcorn.

Bernard was away at a conference for the weekend; he had his work to do and his hoped-for promotion to cultivate. He was a stickler for being active and ‘doing’ stuff, so this was Alice’s chance to be self-indulgent for once.

She sighed with pleasure at the prospect of doing nothing much at all and felt the stress ease out of her body, a stress caused by their recent move and a certain tension that had built up between her and Bernard. She shook her head now as she remembered the petty source of the tension: the sofa itself.

Walter the Wonder Dog

Why did I get a dog?

As I drove the streets of my neighborhood, scanning yards, I wondered how far Walter could have gotten by now. He could have gone down any of these side streets. My heart lurched. What if he changed directions and went the other way, toward the busy street?

Blue: Part 2

Pema stared hard at the results as if the numbers might change, might realize the error of their ways and correct themselves.

They didn’t.

She ran the analysis again, watched as nutrient levels, base saturations, and mineral ratios spread across her handheld’s screen, held her breath again. Shook her head again. Phosphorus, off target. Not by much, but by now Pema knew that’s all it took.

The pathogen had spread.

Three Hundred and Sixty-Five

“It’s an aggressive form,” Dr. Monroe said. His eyes didn’t waver; he was used to giving bad news.

“You’ve got about a year.” This time he spoke with a little more empathy, not nearly enough to soften the blow.

“So, you’re telling me I’m dying,” I said.

“I’m afraid so,” he said, scribbling something on my chart.

Dream Destination

I would like it to be sunny there. Sun gives you vitamin … some-letter-or-other. But not too much, hey! Some sun — good; too much — bad! Wear a hat. Sunglasses. Factor some-high-number sun block. But yes, sun. Apart from the vitamin intake, there’s the sense of wellbeing. Apparently, the further north you are, like here, where skies are grey, days shorter, rain aplenty, the suicide rate is appalling. I’m not ready to go yet. Give me sunshine.

The Bad Man and the Fixer

Eldrich Ainsworth wasn’t who he appeared to be. I was as sure of that as I was my name, which is Julie Koblowski, by the way.

He lived next door to me and my mother. Every morning I watched as he left his house at 7:30 am dressed in a black suit and dark sunglasses. He walked down to the bus stop on the corner of Clover and Pine, where he’d get on the number 5 bus. Then he’d return each evening at precisely 6 pm.

“I don’t trust him,” Mom said.

Which was a riot, because she had terrible judgment in men. From my father to the man who now lived in our house.

The Cabin

How did I come to be here? Well, let me prepare some tea and food while I tell you my story. You get settled by the fire; you must be frozen.

It was some years ago, I am not sure how many — it could be five or fifteen; time seems not to move here. Like you, I climbed that rocky path on the north side. Did they tell you down below not to take it? Yes, they told me, too. But my sense of adventure — and my pride, it must be said — got the better of me.

The Need for Fire

The prince fought valiantly and slayed the dragon. The princess wept for days. She loved that dragon.

She wept when he carried her out of the burning remains of the cavern, clutching the dragon’s last egg. She wept when he laid her in his carriage and took her on the long journey home. She wept when his servants tried to serve her food. She wept when they set up her tent to sleep. She stopped weeping when they tried to take the egg away, just long enough to go for the jugular.

Shattered

The white cup was sitting on the table, a leftover dish from breakfast. It was the one with the black and yellow logo from a company where she used to work.

Who was drinking from it, me or him, she thought, but couldn’t remember. It didn’t matter now anyway.

The fight had been one of those lingering ones. You know, the kind that contained residue from previous fights, things said long ago that were never truly dealt with. All of it contributed to the explosion that eventually happened.

Faceless

“That will be $9.80,” I said, as I glanced at the driver’s ticket. The toll booth felt like a refrigerator tonight, and I shivered.

The driver cursed as he unfastened his seatbelt and fumbled in his pocket for change.

“Where does this money go?” he asked. “Certainly not to the roads. I almost broke an axle on a pothole back there.”

There was a short spiel I was supposed to deliver in response to this sort of query, but I didn’t bother. I wanted to get this guy out of here, since I was waiting on a particular vehicle.

The Attic

Ned was in his bedroom playing a video game with his best friend Harry when his mother poked her head round the door.

“Ned, you know old Mrs Wilson’s moving?”

Ned was a psychopath slashing up Harry’s characters and seemed oblivious to the interruption.

“Ned!”

“What?” grunted an irritated Ned.

The Bad Guy

“Don’t cry,” he told me. “I’ll let you go as soon as they pay up.”

“I’m not crying,” I replied.

“Oh.” He looked a little disappointed, though it was hard to tell behind the skull mask. “Could you cry a little? They tend to move faster if the hostage cries.”

I shrugged. “I could. Do you have some onion I can rub on my eyes?”

He thought for a moment. “I’ll be right back.”

Irregular

There’s a little town between here and there. Don’t worry, you don’t need to know where it is; in fact I’m doing you a favor by not telling you where it is. Let’s just say, it’s the kind of town you speed by on your way to somewhere else.

This may seem like an odd thing but our story begins with a sock; yes, a sock. Just your typical cotton/spandex blend, like that one, lying over there on Danvers Road.

It was part of a pack of Hanes athletic tube socks, only $5.50 in the sale bin at the Walmart. Margery Morgan purchased them for her husband, Harry, a 50-year-old two pack a day smoker, and a rather despicable human being.

I Spy

“I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with …” The boy searches the surroundings, lifts his face towards the sky, but forgets to use a distractor before blurting out: “C.”

“Oooh, that’s tricky, Porkchop. Er … could it be ‘clouds’?” The second boy punches Porkchop on his chubby arm.

“Ow, Mikey! What d’you do that for?!”

“You know — just because.”

Purple

My friend Dylan died today. It wasn’t a quick death; he’d been dying for years. Drugs had taken over his life, and no matter how many times he got clean, the demon always won him back.

Memorable

I think my boss is a supervillain.

It’s not just the way she looks — though the constant parade of high heels, skin-tight outfits, silver hair, and tight red lips don’t help. No. It’s the way she keeps looking at me when I talk about superheroes.

“Bunch of skinflints,” she’d say. “Leave it to the law to deal with the villains. There’s no place for vigilantes in this world.”

Convenient, when you consider that the entire city’s law enforcement was turned on its head when the supervillain Cascade rolled into town last time. Cognitus was the only thing that stopped her, so why wouldn’t she want him out of the way?

Dear John

John

Just to warn you in advance: you’ll be shocked by this letter and the news it brings. But me being British, it just wouldn’t be cricket not to explain things to you. So here goes. (I’m not telling you anything new here, of course. I’m just stating it to bring it afresh to the front of your mind, to establish the context for what comes next.)

Two Choices

“Come on, Claire. You can’t be alone on Valentine’s Day,” Lisa insisted over the phone.

“Sure I can,” I said, looking at the box of chocolates on my coffee table. I had a bottle of champagne chilling in the refrigerator, too. I hadn’t picked out a movie yet but it would be something with a Hepburn in it. Probably Katherine. She always made me smile.

“He’s a great guy. I promise.”

“Your boss’s cousin, whom you’ve never met. He might be a serial killer, for all you know.”

“He’s just a lonely guy stuck in a strange city on Valentine’s Day. Be a little hospitable.”

This Old Job

I haven’t seen Penny Arnold since those long, lazy summer days at Brookshire High. She used to wear her hair in a ponytail in the spring, and in pigtails in the fall. She liked ribbons and horses and cheesecake, and I liked hearing her laugh. We had mostly good times, and even on the worst days, I have trouble forgetting them. She had a wide smile, the kind that reached from ear to ear and split her face the way a sunrise splits the horizon, and it hasn’t changed.

“Ben,” she says. Her hair is silver, the skin around her eyes is wrinkled by age and wisdom, and her hands are marred by the work she’s done in her long life, the babies she carried with them, and the things they made. But that brightness is still there. When she smiles, I still see sunrise.

“Penny,” I say warmly. “It’s been a long time.”

In Perpetuity

Anna Emery’s pregnancy was quite unexpected; not in the Virgin Mary immaculate conception kind of way, but a surprise nonetheless.

She and Mason had been very careful, always making sure they were using protection. But as Anna’s grandmother was often quoted as saying, “If you do the deed, there’s a chance he might plant his seed.”

And three months after their first date, Anna was pregnant. A month later, they were married. Not long after that, they were on the verge of a divorce.

The Worst Just Got Better

It was the worst food Bernard had ever tasted.

“That lasagna was lovely, Helen.”

“Cannelloni, actually, but thank you anyway.”

I Resolve

January 1

I threw out all the junk food and alcohol in the house today. We had oatmeal for breakfast (mine plain, Darren’s with brown sugar, and Kristi’s with the last of the Christmas candy stirred in). We had salad for lunch (mine with tuna, Darren’s and Kristi’s with chicken nuggets on top). In the afternoon, we snacked on apple slices and almond butter. I made a big pot of vegetable soup with quinoa for dinner. (Darren and Kristi had theirs with grilled cheese sandwiches). After dinner, Darren asked why there wasn’t any beer and I explained that we were going to make some changes around here. He sighed and told me he’d be out in the garage. Right now he’s pouting, but he’ll thank me on his eightieth birthday.

Shangaville Circus: The Lying Clown

White paper; black ink.

The skyscraper sat empty, silent and still as a tomb. The only sounds that accompanied him were the clicks and clacks of the keyboard as his manicured fingers hit them. Looks mattered, he always knew. His old mentor had taught him that on his first day. Women primp, tuck, and lift, George O’Bryan used to say, and men suck in, suit up, and manicure.

“Most men don’t admit to that last bit, but a polished hand is a hand grasping for success. Money and power don’t go to men with dirt under their nails.”

And his mentor imparted that wisdom, along with many others, right up until the day he took over the man’s job, office, and dignity. He didn’t know where George O’Bryan was now, and once in a while he wondered if he should care.

Departure

6:45 am. That’s when I get everybody up. Well, my sons at least. My nine-year-old daughter and I have an understanding. I don’t pester her, and she comes down when she wants. We leave at 8:10 am. She usually shows up around 8:03.

But it all starts at 6:45 am. My seven-year-old son is quick to rise. All I have to do is say, Good morning! Time to get up! and flip the light on. He jumps up like he was never asleep. He dresses quickly. The first one downstairs gets to pick the TV show. He really wants to pick the TV show. My almost-four-year-old son is slow to rise. He rolls around on his Hot Wheels sheets, moaning. But I’m sleepy, he says, over and over. Then the questions start. Why is it morning? Because the sun’s up. Where’s Daddy? In the shower. Then, then one I dread. “Is it a Mommy day?”

Peccadillos

It all started with a simple glass of water.

Conrad Jacobs woke to see the glass defiantly sitting on his antique dresser. The same glass he asked his wife to move several times. The very same glass that left a water mark so complete, the wood beneath was worn and pale.

“Aubrey!” he called, but she didn’t answer. She rarely answered him these days.

Merry Christopher

The turkey was in the oven, the potatoes too, most of the veg had been prepared, and Natalie was whistling while she worked.

Then Michael came into the kitchen.

“Anything I can do?” he asked, his question merely a preliminary.

Natalie gave him a look that reiterated an incontrovertible fact: this was her exclusive domain — always had been, always would be.

I Wonder As I Wander

I have a curious nature. At least, that’s how my grandma phrased it. Sometimes I get a question stuck in my head and I can’t let it go until I find out the answer. It’s like an itch in my brain.

One of my ex-boyfriends referred to it as psychotic. I think he was joking. He was still sore over losing his job. I had noticed a perfect star-shaped stain on the passenger seat of the company car when he picked me up for a date. I wondered how that could have happened. What sort of object would cause an impression like that and why would it stain? Finally, I asked his boss about it. How was I supposed to know my ex didn’t have permission to drive the company car?

Snow White Adopted

I don’t want to talk about the fact that my sister helped herself to my clothes and room the moment she moved back in. I don’t want to talk about the way my mother fawns over her with wet, teary eyes and the way my father holds her and calls her “precious.” I don’t want to comment on her favorite sweets baking in the oven, her old toys dug out and spread all over the house, or her yellow tank top with ducks printed on it, an old gag gift I gave her. I don’t even want to discuss the fact that she’s supposed to be two years older than me, not four years younger.

But I do have to talk about the fact that she died ten years ago.

Bleak Friday

If you had asked me just a few short weeks before, I would’ve said you were crazy. Yet there I was, standing in line alongside other frenzied shoppers, looking for the deal of a lifetime on Black Friday.

When I told my best friend Tabitha that I was thinking about doing this crazy thing, she screamed. Then the scream turned into a shriek, which morphed into a squeal that just kept getting higher and higher until I couldn’t make out any actual words. My dog Max growled, and gave her the same look he gives the neighbor’s cat every time it runs through our yard.

“Let’s go, Amy,” she said. “Tons of people do it every year, why not us?”

White Horses

Once upon a time, in a distant land, there was a queen — Queen Beyaz by name. She was a good queen, and we know that because she always wore white. Good queens wear white. Bad queens wear black. Or red. Or green, at a stretch. But this queen would never think of wearing anything but white.

And everything around her was white, too, just to make sure that people knew she was a good queen. So she had a white palace, with white walls and floors and ceilings and furniture — a devil to keep clean, but it was a price Queen Beyaz was willing to pay to keep up appearances.

Always Read the Instructions

It’s not a holiday until I get into the kitchen with Mom. Even though I live in a different city now and we don’t cook together much any more, we fall back into the familiar rhythms. She places her best knife on the cutting board in front of me. I hand her the salt before she realizes she needs it.

The turkey was in the oven, and we were both sitting at the table peeling potatoes. The picture window in my mom’s dining area gave a panoramic view of the Gunderson property across the street.

Inheritance

Windows are not allowed open in my home, especially the ones on the south side of the estate overlooking the vegetable garden and the orchard beyond.

I’ve lived much of my life in the orchard.

Monsters don’t venture there.

Cook likes to tell me about the faery and boggarts, as well as other creatures I should be wary of in the wilder places of the estate and the surrounding wood. I’ve looked but never seen them. Best to be wary of the monster you know than to fear the ones who have never caused you harm.

Shifted

Seven years. It’s been seven years and Dom isn’t about to go now, body lost to the Void in the alleyway of an abandoned apartment complex overrun with the Shifted. She loses herself in the grind, chest heaving and lungs burning with effort as she fights until there’s nothing left, until the flashes of light from Shifted eyes fade and she’s surrounded by death, blood and shadow soaking together on the ground.

She’s nauseated but she chokes it down. When she turns around, there’s still one standing, but Dom hesitates, rooted to the spot. The stranger isn’t glitching, and her red hair is matted with sweat and blood but free of shadows. Still, Dom hesitates; she’s been wrong before. There’s silence save for their heavy breathing and the steady drip of blood from axe to pavement.

“Hello?” says Dom warily.

Rose

The group stood in a small hallway that led to an old padlocked storage room. Laura, age eight, asked, “What’s this?”

“Was once the second bedroom,” Dudley said. “But now it’s just fer storage.”

“Can we see inside?” Laura asked.

“No can do, little lady. Employees only.”

If someone was looking at Dudley closely, they would’ve seen him shiver slightly. Just being near the room gave him the chills, and he did his best to never go inside. But if you asked him after his shift, and plied him with a few glasses of his favorite scotch, he just might tell you the real reason why that room was padlocked.

“It wadn’t the fog that caused the lighthouse to close,” he’d say, enjoying the smoothness of the scotch as it went down. “The real reason it closed is inside that old storage room.”

The Midsummer Maiden

It had happened every Midsummer’s Eve since Fira’s grandmother had been a girl.

A beautiful woman would come walking out of the forest at dusk and take a single girl from the village.

“It’s an honour to be chosen,” the elders would say, but it didn’t seem that way to Fira. For no one knew where the girls were taken, and they were only ever seen once again: the following Midsummer’s Eve when it would be them walking out of the trees to take the next girl.

Show and Tell

This bruise-eyed boy hauling a box, heavy as the world. Straining under snickering rain and cratered sky. Stop. Old man breath. Feels like the thousandth time he’s walked this route, the first time he’s felt this way. Adrenalin like rumbles of thunder all through him.

The morning winds rush down the hill behind Tim, catching the sound of wood on concrete, so it reaches along the concrete path under the line of birch trees, the path brings it through the gates into the playground, where it reaches the ears of waiting chattering children, who turn and see Tim, see the weight of the box, see the scribbled warnings Privet, Danjrus, Dont touch, and come circling in towards him. They all clamour to see what’s inside. They plead. They cajole. They bribe with offers of friendship and parties. Their words tinkle and crash around him like shattered glass. Theo says “Show me.” In this little corner of the universe, nobody says no to Theo McKenzie. But Tim does, and time stops for a moment.

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