Categotry Archives: Fiction
Suzie’s House 488 : School Supplies
“So. School starts tomorrow. Are you ready?” Lisa sat in Ben’s bedroom, on his bed, and kicked her heels back and forth while he sat at his desk in front of his computer and read through her latest opus. “Uh-huh. Yeah.” He answered so absently that she almost asked again. But then he pointed to a backpack leaning up against the wall. It was stuffed so full the zipper wouldn’t close. It was like a gaping reminder of the hateful […]
A Father-Son Moment
The boy found his father in the living room with a beer in one hand and the remote control in the other. “Whatcha doing, Dad?” “It’s a monster movie marathon on three channels at the same time. I can’t decide what I want to watch.” “This is a horror movie? I get the scary music, but what’s so scary about a diner?” “Just keep watching.” “You’ve seen this before? Whoah! What’s that eating the diner?!” “That’s the blob. The movie […]
Suzie’s House 487 : Band Meeting
Gene ran out to the bottom of the stairs to shout at Ben and Lisa. Since Lisa was working on the music video for them, she counted as an honorary sort of band member and you couldn’t expect Ben to sit out of it when all his friends were there in his house. “Lisa! Ben! We’re starting.” “Yeah, we got it.” Ben waved from down the hall. The two of them had come in from the kitchen. They weren’t upstairs […]
Christmas Pony
Alicia and Sally leaned against the split-rail fence while watching the horses eat. The bails had been frozen together this morning. Getting them to the feeder and breaking them apart had taken half an hour. “You know, when I was a little girl I asked Santa for a pony every year.” Alicia broke the silence. “All through grade school and right up until I met you I wanted a pony. If I’d known how much work they take, I’d never […]
Suzie’s House 486 : A Lion’s Pride
“I’m proud of you.” Vin stood by their bedroom door with his arms crossed over his chest and a proud smile. “Yeah? What’s that about?” Miranda refused to look at him any more than she had to. He didn’t need any encouragement if he was going to comment on her character. Instead, she focused on getting her image in the mirror of her vanity and getting the rest of the makeup off her face. This was purely practical. Nothing vain […]
Suzie’s House 485 : Up to Snuff
Gene did not much care for Miranda. Not that he really disliked her. Certainly he hated his own father a lot more. Miranda never hit him, rarely said nasty things to him, and sometime even fed him. So she was mostly okay. But still, Miranda was the kind of woman he already knew he couldn’t handle.
Suzie’s House 484: Jumping the Gun
“It’s not my fault.” Lisa sounded even more prickly than Tracy expected. “When did I say it’s your fault.” Tracy couldn’t help getting a little defensive as she leaned over to look at Lisa’s laptop. “I’m just saying…. I don’t know! It’s just… forty two? Seriously? Only forty two?” “That’s forty two hits in two days, and it’s only on youtube. I mean, we haven’t put the music video anywhere else yet. Right? Once we get it on Facebook and […]
Suzie’s House 483 : Making Movies
Lisa wasn’t sure if she could use any of the film footage later, but she certainly was having fun. She dropped to her knees in front of Bruce, panned up along his stand to the underside of his keyboard, then zoomed in on his face. Normally she considered Bruce’s innate machismo nauseating. He was too brutal to be an oaf, but not smooth enough to be cool. Or so she thought until today. On film, with that narrow-eyed, knowing expression […]
Suzie’s House 482 : Bearding the Lion
On one of those rare days when Miranda made it home early but Vin was still out working, she sat in their room and painted her nails. Yesterday they were red talons. Today she’d only had time to add a pink top edge to hide the chipping. Today she’d go with tri-color slanted stripes. She had all but one nail done when the kids knocked on her door.
Roofer
Carl hadn’t gone up on a roof himself in ten years. With one thing or another, his whole crew walked just as the millionaire hired him to roof a set of three. He scraped his knees and bruised his thumb, but got it done. Even the last roof with all the color tiles that had to be done just so – he did it on deadline. When he went for his pay, the owner changed his mind. He wanted the […]
Suzie’s House 481 : Incognito
“I sound awful.” Emma covered her face with her hands. “Turn it off. Turn the TV off!” She flapped a hand at the TV in her living room. “Oh. Right.” Tracy had been sitting on the couch next to Emma with a look of abject horror on her face. Emma watched her through spread fingers. Tracy launched herself across the room to turn the advertisement off. “My song,” she muttered as though her firstborn had been swept away in a […]
Suzie’s House 480 : First Appearances
Bruce was on his way out of Suzie’s house by way of the kitchen when he overheard his music on the TV in the den. Drew had the tube on even though his back was to it. Probably one of those guys who just had to have some kind of sound in the background so he wouldn’t go nuts. Bruce could relate.
A Life On the Shelf
Ruth stood in front of the curios cabinet. Hank put the shell in the niche on the lower left the day they came back from Coney Island. Martin put the feather on the top left the first time he visited after completing his bird book. Matt gave her the jar full of match heads. She wasn’t sure what that was about and wasn’t going to ask. Ted placed the painted pebble in the center niche the day he won his […]
Suzie’s House 479 : A Hitch in the Hinge
The door to the closet had come unhinged. It had a tendency to fall off the rail along the top in the first place, but the weird hinge on either end had never been a problem before. Ethan had no idea how he was supposed to fix it. Somehow, it all seemed a little too symbolic of his life. He planned on a bad rail, and ended up unhinged instead.
Suzie’s House 478 : Poetic License
”It’s good. Right?” Miranda leaned back in her ergonomic office chair and smiled. “Yeah. It’s good.” Her colleague pursed his lips and nodded. “It’s pretty slick the way you get the lyrics to match up with the shot of the car driving off the lot.” Miranda beamed. She was proud of herself not only for her artistic efforts on this particular ad, but for the way she’d been able to use Malaprop songs with her biggest account. Everything was finally […]
