Stories - Short Fiction Break

The Boat

For a moment, Aasfa is at peace. Holding her face up to the sun and the cooling salty breeze, she shuts out the ugly sights, sounds and smells that surround her.

She is back in her village. Her mother calls from the kitchen and Aasfa skips across the dusty yard, sidestepping the family hen pecking away at the scorched earth. “Help me with dinner,” her mother says. Aasfa fetches some grey water from the well and puts a pot on the stove to boil.

Later, after finishing the thin soup, Aasfa, her mother and young brother Ali remain at the table drinking tea. Not for the first time, Aasfa brings up the subject of the boat, and as always, her mother resists the idea. She tells her mother again that her uncles will help raise the fare. Her mother takes her hand and searches her face for uncertainty. Finding only steely resolve, she reluctantly nods her agreement, eyes closed tightly against the pain of being without her daughter.

Duck Eggs

“Will this take long?” I asked as I set a cup of coffee in front of the detective. I was careful not to let the cup rattle when it touched the table. “I have a tee time in forty minutes.”

“No. I just want to review your statement and see if you have anything to add.”

“It was two years ago.”

“Sometimes it’s worth taking a second look at a case after a little time has passed. People think of some detail they didn’t think was important before, or something happens to change their perspective on events. To be honest,” he said with a disarming smile, “I’m retiring soon, and this is one of those cases that always bugged me.”

The Magic Recipe

Once upon a time there was a farm on which lived a widow and her son, Jack (no, not that Jack, another one — although their stories are quite similar).

It was a poor farm, producing each year a meagre crop of beans. The widow did her best to work the land and eke out a living for the two of them, but a summer came when there was a bad drought and things got especially difficult.

One day, the widow found a flyer in the mail-box at the gate of the farm.

“Magic Beans!” it trumpeted (told you). Planting the beans would apparently produce a prime crop, whatever the soil, whatever the weather.

High

I had been an artist.

In the slums, in darkness as black as our driven lust, I’d told my stories. And I can tell you, if wealth was measured by drops of crimson spilt in dark alleyways I would have been a millionaire.

The Bloody Painter, they’d called me. I liked to paint my victims afterwards, to show the world I was leagues above their average serial killer. I was an artist.

The Hot Flash!

I love snow. In the winter, when I have a hot flash at night, I can strip off all my clothes, go in the back yard and roll around in a snow bank. Thank goodness for privacy fences.

In the summer, I am perpetually sweaty and red-faced, my lank hair stuck to the side of my head. I have to rely on air conditioning and fans, which are completely inadequate. I tried to talk my husband into installing a walk-in freezer in Jack Jr’s bedroom, since he was away at college now. Jack didn’t even look up from his Sudoku.

After the Storm

The last thing Sherri Larson needed was another storm in her life.

Huddled in the heavy darkness of what was little better than a metal box, Sherri wrapped her arms around her knees and willed her heart rate to steady. Just above her head, growling thunder reminded her that the danger was far from over. In fact, it was only beginning.

She should have known something was wrong that morning. The day had been bright and cloudless, but far too hot for late September on the Kansas prairie. Around noon, dark clouds had begun boiling on the horizon. Still, she’d never dreamed things could turn so deadly—not until the tornado sirens began screaming, and she’d seen the lethal wall clouds for herself, spinning relentlessly across the plains toward the small town where Sherri owned and operated a diner.

Family Affairs

The private dining room, despite its sophisticated walnut accents and warm tones, was both stifling and somber. A fitting place for this particular family dinner.

Sliding open the paneled screen, a waiter entered the small space and set a plate of edamame down on the white linen tablecloth. He then stood waiting at the end of the table, clasping his hands behind his back.

Dennis Martinson dismissed the waiter with a wave of his hand, then picked up a pod and munched. He was a man used to getting his way, and he regarded his son with irritation, not hiding the disdain in his voice. “So, Adam, tell me again why you’re planning to leave the business?”

Into Skye

Scotland

April 1893

The hot air balloon approached the Isle of Skye carrying its pilot and two passengers. Sophie pushed back a bright red curl, adjusting her goggle strap. She increased the heat inside the balloon, the weight of her Tesla guns against her legs reassuring as they floated above Talisker Bay. The creatures would come into view any minute. She knew she brought her passengers to see them, but it never made it any less nerve-wracking to know that a paying customer could be decapitated any time.

To See The Sun

I’ve been in The Room so long I don’t remember what it looks like outside. I think there were colors.

Here, everything’s white. The cement floor is coated with a glossy white finish that squeaks under our rubber-soled shoes. The walls, the plastic-covered mattresses we sleep on, the blankets they give us—all white. Even the lights, burning down from the high ceiling are white with no trace of the golden glow I almost remember.

We wear white jumpsuits, no pockets. There’s no place to hide anything here. Even the bathroom is just a screened-off area without a door, open at the top so our most private moments can be witnessed through opaque windows that stretch around the upper perimeter of The Room.

Murphy’s Law of Home Improvement

The jet of water hit me in the face. “Motherless son of a biscuit!” I got a hand between me and the water but dropped the pipe cutter. Whatever, I didn’t need that anymore.

“What did you do, Jim?” Fred demanded, his tone dripping with derision.

“Shut it off!” I shouted back.

“Where’s the valve?”

“To your right. By the shelf.” The puddle on the concrete floor of the laundry room grew at an alarming rate.

“How the hell am I supposed to reach it. You have the ladder.”

“Just jump!”

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.

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