Stories tagged short

The Last Story

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The serious writer always knew there would be a last story but when the time came, he felt ill-prepared.

Layers on a Cold Night

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Later that night, he lay his shivering children in his own bed, the bed that betrayed and abandoned him just a few years ago. It will protect them now.

Another Big Dumb Object

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"James, can you take a peek at problem://7ac5e46f today?" "It's just another big dumb object. Seems low priority." "Escalated by the directorate."

Bird-Watching

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I didn’t understand, you said with a hoot, that it was hard to get hard when my ass was soft.

Mind You Don't

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. . . as long as I am doing, death is not happening

411

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She had nothing left. The car went dead a mile back and she left it in darkness. She broke the heels from her shoes. It was easier to walk now. Her family lived 300 miles away. She never lived anywhere long. Not long enough to make…

Battle at the Bodega

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Mr. Lowell knelt down and put his face in his hands, his knees quickly covered in blood. Sobs.

Chicken Bones

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"My body annoys me. It distracts me from myself with its constant needs, never fulfilled. I feed it like a stray cat that’s been there too long."

I Beat Myself at Chess (revised)

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There we sat, myself and I, at a small folding table in the middle of the lab beside the main, l-shaped workbench. The lab was empty - always was - except for the two of us.

Four

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With babiesand toysand dishesstrewn aboutmy lonelylandscapethe best helphe could offerwas to stayout of my wayuntil dinnerwas served, to whichbeing sufficientlytender, I couldcall him.And nowawakening,swimmingthrough themercuryof my discoverieshowling, weepingI scrambleto…

I didn’t know that I was lost

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I didn't know that I was lost.In intimate rooms, filled with memory laden wallson floors stained with hunger and desire I felt empty yet complete. On familiar streets, chasing adulation giving my all, being one with all I touched I felt hollow yet…

Words Unwritten

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Today I am throwing away the blank pages of my life.Years of pages filled with silence soaked red with unwritten pain.The whites, the lined, the pastel hued, the ones I had gathered to fill with my thoughts; bound in leather or lying separate sheet from…

Five

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"I admire", he says,his heart on his sleeve,"how you write."How infused must bethat admirationwith the angerof knowinghe has inspiredsuch bile;an unremitting cascadeof his denigrations,even if they are onlyjust my perspective.

Six/Sex

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The day he was servedwith divorce papersin the drivewayhe came to our roomand looking perplexedsaid, "Does this meanwe can't have sex tonight?"Things changedbut all things consideredthings haven't changed much.

The Safety of Cups

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I take the fear out and set it squarely in front of me on the desk next to the keyboard.....