Categotry Archives: Fiction
A Flower for Kimberly
Matt took a shovel with him into the yard. Somewhere out here under the snow was a flower that Kimberly liked. Some kind of yellow, trumpet looking thing. She always made a big deal of it. He dug in one drift, and then another. That flower always popped up through the snow. It had to be out here somewhere. Probably in a month it would be easy to find, but he didn’t have a month. He didn’t want to cave […]
Suzie’s House 443 : Guitars at a Music Store
Gene held the music shop door open for Tracy. He followed close on her heels as she made a beeline for the guitars hanging on the far wall. “Technically it was Aunt Stephanie who gave me the money. Mom didn’t say one way or another about getting a guitar. She just said I could have some money to play with over summer vacation. She probably thought I’d go for movies and burgers. I was supposed to get a little at […]
Rice Among the Lotus
Miyamoto Musashi cut down a hundred swordsmen in a single night. A ronan, he destroyed many dojos as proof of his power. He fought and defeated some of the most famous samurai of his day. Yet, broken and alone, he arrived in a destitute village as a beggar. Given the chance to farm, the rice paddies defeated him. In his defeat he discovered enlightenment. When at last the emperor’s men came to ask his allegiance, he no longer had the […]
Suzie’s House 442 : The Money In Hand
Normally Bruce would have been sneaking looks at Gene all through the practice session because of that missing money. This time he got so caught up in writing a song with Emma that he almost forgot. Almost.
On the Job
Drew stood outside the building. He had a wire, but it only went to a recorder hidden under his bomber jacket. His partners didn’t know he was here. They thought the drug king pin worked out of a warehouse somewhere on the edges of Albuquerque. Drew’s informant said the man could be found here and he could get in by saying, “Tell El Jefe that Dave sent me.” The dogs were chained. They buzzed him through the gate when he […]
Suzie’s House 441 : Emma’s Song II
Tracy and Emma beat him to the practice room. Bruce had tried to get there first because he’d been in a rush to leave after the last practice session and had forgotten to pack away his Casio. It might not be the best synthesizer he owned, but he still didn’t want people messing with it.
Suzie’s House 440 : Emma’s Song I
Emma got to the practice room before any of the other band members. She sat on the chair in front of Kate’s drums for a few minutes. She was tempted to give the drums a thump, but Kate would probably have a hissy fit. She didn’t even like it when her boyfriend, Justin, borrowed them, and he actually knew what he was doing.
Stairway to Heaven
“What are you going to show me? Where is it?” Alicia followed a step or two behind Sally as they walked through the woods. “This way.” Sally strode along with confidence. They reached a stairway leading up the side of a hill. Sally didn’t even slow down. Despite how cracked and old the steps or rusty the railing, she went right up. Alicia followed a bit slower. At the top she tried to take in the view, but panted too […]
Suzie’s House 439 : Dumpster Diving Daughter
“It’s weird,” Emma said to Tracy and Gene as they left the studio. She was thinking about her father.
“What? The guitar thing?” Tracy arched her eyebrows.
“N- no, no. I think you and Gene switching is a good idea. I, I mean, you and me do more egging each other on anyway, right? So him playing bass and you guitar makes more sense. I… I think.”
“So, you don’t think we’re lame?” Gene actually said something. Usually he just kind of nodded at the right time.
First Flight
“What was that?” The young man seated next to Marge on the plane that was supposed to take them from Rinca Island to Bali gripped the armrests with white knuckles. It was the third time he had flinched since he sat down. “Whatever it was, I’m sure it wasn’t important.” Marge flipped through the in-flight magazine. She thought she might need to order a bourbon despite the short flight because of his nerves. “How do you know?” He looked at […]
Suzie’s House 438: Conversation Bombs
As much as Emma loved her father, she wasn’t exactly eager to confront him at the crack of dawn as she was headed for the bathroom to shower the smell of cigarette smoke off of her skin and hair. She could too easily imagine him driving himself into a self righteous frenzy over what he must see as her bad behavior. But it wasn’t like she’d been smoking herself. And if she’d been in a bar, it was only to […]
At Least It’s Not A Bridge in Brooklyn
Jane and Marge met up in a coffee house in Clinton Hill, Vermont. They hadn’t seen one another in several months. “So?” Marge arched an eyebrow over her cup of decaf. “Why did you want to see me?” “It seems like we are both so busy traveling around the world that we never see one another any more. Don’t you miss the old times?” Jane smiled ingratiatingly. “No,” Marge said bluntly. “I’ve got the perfect solution.” As usual, Jane ignored […]
Suzie’s House 437 : Climbing in Her Own Window
Emma crawled into her own window around six in the morning. She wasn’t quite sure why she felt it was necessary to pretend she’d been home all night even though she’d only crashed with Tracy and Lisa because the gig at the bar went until closing, and she didn’t feel like trying to explain things to her father because she was so tired.
Suzie’s House 436: Late Night Talks
Sophie had floated her way into the ER today. To think that when she’d used her nurse training before, she’d only ever taken care of old folks in their own homes, and now she could handle the ER. Maybe nobody else noticed, but she was proud of herself. Still, even if she hadn’t made any mistakes, the tension was very high. There had been three code blues on her shift alone. Everyone kept joking about full moons and bad luck […]
Suzie’s House 435 : Home Sweet Home
Ethan stood on the stoop of his own house and looked at the key on his chain, glanced at Gabriel, and offered up a sick laugh. “I’m not quite sure what the protocol is here. Should I knock?” “It’s your family. I haven’t been closer than a hundred miles to my family since I left home.”
