February 2012
1 post
A Mountain Lion Floating Over a Liar
Kevin walked through the park lost in thought. The morning dew hadn’t burned off yet so the air was cold and damp. Sunlight broke up through the leaves of the trees overhead and spread out on the ground before him. The grass seemed almost purple from the shade and the bike path a deep black tar that sunk a little beneath his feet. Above him the mountain lion growled as branches slapped at...
August 2010
2 posts
They weren't listening
They weren’t listening. Like every other night that he took the stage, no one looked at him. He did all the things he was supposed to do, he kept the rhythm of each word, pausing on a beat to emphasize certain parts. He spoke in a soft, faux pleading voice with each line. He even made sure to lean in close to the mic in the beginning. But no matter what he did to ape the styles of every other...
1 tag
Knife Fight
“I’ve read a lot of books…” Stephen said. He folded his hands behind him and looked out directly at the audience. He paused for a minute. “A lot of them.” He looked at a few people at different ends of the room. He looked stern. His direct approach toward public speaking always won people over, and if he didn’t sound friendly people began to respect and fear him outside of the meeting room. ...
April 2008
1 post
1 tag
I work for the Vatican
“No. You don’t understand.” The priest said, leaning in slightly as he tapped his gloved finger on the plastic check card, and gazing sternly at the man behind the counter. “This card was specially given to me by the Vatican as an expense card…” He asserted calmly, the rings around his eyes conveying a deep sense of exhaustion. “…I work… For...
October 2007
1 post
1 tag
Grimm Monkey
Henry finally pulled up to his driveway after spending the night at a bar with his friends. From his car he peered into the windows of his house and saw the all the lights were on, “crap” he thought as he got out and checked to make sure that his car was lined up in a ‘normal’ fashion on his driveway. Carefully, he put the key into the lock and opened the door. He paused...
September 2007
1 post
1 tag
The Last Horcrux
It was somewhere into the second hour that Rachael decided to take her cloak off. It wasn’t making the search any easier in the way that her sleeve kept getting caught on the end caps or the shelves as she scrambled frantically for the next clue. She was dressed as Hermione, and though her costume far outdid the other kids in the bookstore, she was beginning to wish she just wore a t-shirt...
January 2007
1 post
1 tag
Malachi
He marveled at the blotches of gray and white feathers that crept around Malachi’s little body. His head, small and aerodynamic, darted from left to right as if to cast a protective eye. “So you say he will protect me?” Terry asked. “Absolutely.” The kindly looking old man behind the counter replied. His bleach-blue eyes peeking out playfully from behind the folds...
December 2006
2 posts
1 tag
Comb of the Grotesque
“And this…” Mr. VanHauseman said as he gestured calculatedly toward the item that sat on a lighted pillar. All his movements were deliberate because of the tight, double breasted suit he was wearing. It was an antique, and it looked that any movement on his part would break the shoulders at the seams. “This is a comb.” The group of teenagers that had straggled in from...
1 tag
Children's Room Decorator
He dropped his roller stick on the hardwood floor, gouging a small scrape as it’s metal arm hit. He didn’t care, and neither did the woman who was watching in awe from the doorway. He studied the walls, hands planted firmly on his hips with a scowl of a man who intended to conquer a well known enemy. There was a long silence, his intense breathing hissing audibly through his bushy...
November 2006
1 post
2 tags
Best Friends Forever
“I can’t be your B.F.F anymore.” She stated. It was dry, and without emotion as if she had done this days ago. “What?” “You can not be my B.F.F. anymore. I wanted to call and tell you that I am breaking my B.F.F. with you.” She repeated. Her thick, staccato-ridden, accent putting stress on the wrong syllables. “Oh I get it. I forgot about that,...
September 2006
1 post
1 tag
Ghost in the house
“No, really- your yard looks great!” Her small voice sang through the phone, “I haven’t seen it look that good since Phil lived there.” “Really? Thanks. It took a lot of work to get that tree down, but it really opened up the area.” Jason said while looking out his back window to the open yard. Clara, the old woman who lived next door was doing the same...
August 2006
2 posts
1 tag
Vibro-Chair
“Ma’am, you can’t sit here all day.” The store clerk said sternly, as his hand rested lightly on the plush, leather vibrating chair. “I don’t see anyone here, is there a line?” The large woman said, sitting up to dramatically look around the Sharper Image’s show room floor to prove her point. She was right, there was no one there. No one was ever at...
1 tag
A pimp in the sunset of our lives
Jordan played with his cup in silence. The other gray-haired men who sat at the MacDonalds table with him looked to each other with raised eyebrows and smug looks. “Is that so Jordo? You really married to that idea?” One of them said slyly smirking at another who sat across from him. “Yes. I’m not changing my mind, and I’m not having a break-down!” Jordan...
July 2006
2 posts
1 tag
Astronomy with Kevin
It was just after midnight late in Sepetember. The air was cool and the sky was clear as Kevin and John trampled the long grass underfoot, to reach the center of the field they had just entered. Both were wearing thick, wooly sweaters while carrying long boxes with both hands. They continued without speaking, following the shaky ball of light on the ground that emitted from Kevin’s...
1 tag
4th of July Vacation
He was half dozing in the beach chair, with one arm laying limply over the edge of the arm rest so that his fingertips played gently on the hot sand. A warm breeze came in off the lake and swirled around him, causing his hair to flitter across his forehead and provoke him into opening his eyes. Ahead of him, wading in the water was his wife and one year old daughter. The daughter was screaming and...
June 2006
8 posts
1 tag
Mary Tyler Moore House
“Is this it?” Katherine asked, Pressing her face forward, and bending her neck back so her nose and chin almost touched the glass on the car window. “No. I think it’s down another block.” Phil replied, staring forward, his face without expression. “I don’t know what’s causing the fad to come back, but you’re the third friend from out of town to...
1 tag
T.V. women and time travel
It was when Neal was sitting in his cramped, one room apartment watching the “Mary Tyler Moore” show that the idea hit him. ‘If I was at my age now, back then, I’d clean up. I’d get all the women.’ It was an idea that absorbed him for the duration of the show until he realized that there really wasn’t a reason that he would be so successful with women back...
1 tag
It's a wonderful life
Chris and Janice had just sat down to watch a movie like they do every night. Right after they put the kids to sleep, they make a snack and curl up on the couch to watch whatever had come in the mail from netflix. This night it was the 1946 classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring James Stewert. Janice had fallen asleep while laying in her bathrobe, something she always changed...
1 tag
Fathers Day
Gus was a well-respected project manager at his office. Quiet but strong. Friendly but dependable. A gentleman with a strong sense of right and wrong. People around the office looked up to him and depended on him to make the hard decisions. He had two beautiful and well-mannered children and a lovely wife, which was expected of someone of his stature. He wasn’t the type to display his...
1 tag
Mr. Patches runs for city council
When he came home from work, he was greeted at the door by his cat, Mr. Patches. He stood at the door motionless, he had never been greeted in such a confrontational manner before. Though it was almost impossible for anyone else to read underneath his fur, he could tell that Mr. Patches had a facial expression of contempt. He knew Mr. Patches that well. “You ok Mr. Patches?” He said...
1 tag
Kindly, old lazer pointer repair-man
When Janet’s laser pointer broke during her big presentation, she ran from the meeting room crying. She knew her power point was weak on the standard special effects of text sliding in, and dissolving into the next screen but it didn’t matter. She had purchased an inexpensive laser pointer at Target and planned on carrying her presentation with that. She had spent the night before...
1 tag
The soul of Sir Winston Churchill in my cellphone
At first I thought it was all in my head. That I was hallucinating what I heard, but when other people heard it too I knew it was for real. You’d think it would be cool to have Winston Churchill’s soul taking residence in your cell phone, but actually it’s pretty annoying. It first started when I was making out with my girlfriend on her couch. I heard a voice softly mumble,...
1 tag
Farmers and the internet
Buck was drawn to the farmers life after reading about the murdered man from “In Cold Blood”. It wasn’t the part about being murdered that he found attractive, but how stoic and rugged he seemed. In his darkest moments while working late at the office, he found him self overtaken with a vision of himself rising up from the center of a cornfield, scythe in hand, and wiping sweat...
May 2006
8 posts
1 tag
Bob quit
Bob wasn’t well liked around the office. He was pretty quiet and kept to him self. No one really disliked him so much as they didn’t have anything to say to him. He wasn’t invited to the happy hour’s and everyone dreaded having to sit next to him at the holiday parties. Eventually he quit his job and put in his two weeks. On his last day, everyone in the office took him out...
1 tag
Neutral Rabbit
The idea of carrying around a rabbit’s foot for luck has always been a frightening concept for him. But he needed good luck now more than ever. The community center he has started to give distraction to the trouble teens in his small, mid western suburb was going to shut down. It turns out that you cant legally run a community center without a license from the city. And, no matter how many...
1 tag
Predecessor to a Listener
Steve had spent months learning how to become a ‘listener’ under Rory’s teachings. It began when they met on the day they moved into their campus dorm together. Rory said their being roommates was meant to be, and how he would show Steve the way of the ‘sensitive campus guy’. Steve wasn’t much interested until Rory convinced him to hide in the top bunk while he...
1 tag
Encourage Startling Prostitute
She wasn’t necessarily unattractive, so much as startling. One couldn’t really define what was wrong with her when her looks were broken down to it’s elements. But as a whole she was alarming to look at. Her eyes were small and placed tightly together, but that style of eye has been seen on others who could still be considered attractive. Her nose was thin and long so that the...
1 tag
Convenience Store Uprising
It was a morning just like any other at the Pretty Flippin’ Fast convenience store. People stumbled in groggy to purchase coffee, Mountain Dew or Twinkies for their morning commute. No one spoke or looked each other in the eye and the man behind the counter completed each transaction with as few words as possible. But there was something different in the air this time, something looming over...
1 tag
Pulled Announcements
“Goooooooooood morning Alice Smith Elementary!” Greg bellowed into the microphone. His voice echoing softly through the closed classroom doors and trailing down the dark hallways. Following it snaked the hiss of children cheering from their desks. Cheryl was pulling moist paper towels from the drain of the hand cleaning fountains, which squatted like vacant UFO’s by the...
1 tag
Your Selfish Crush on Legolas
So, you love Legolas. Worse yet you have to tell everyone about it. It started off innocently enough when you were a child. You read Tolken’s books and came to the conclusion that Legolas, and all the other elves were your favorite. You were drawn to them because of their stoic nature, and what was described as fair good looks. When the movies came out you were a little older, and you...
1 tag
First Person Shooter Dispair
There was a shot, then Keith watched as the grass below his feet rose up and hit his face. Slowly, he watched the grass pull away to reveal the blue sky above, as his limp body rolled onto it’s back. The bushes he was hiding behind were now overhead swaying in a soft wind that had picked up. “You feel that?! Yeah, I bet you did bitch.” Jim shouted over to him from another city....