Categotry Archives: Fiction
Big Bird Bites the Big One
“Oh noooooo! Big Bird is dead!” Ernie rolled his eyes to the heavens and swooned. “No he’s not.” Bert didn’t even put his newspaper down. “But he’s laying on the floor with his eyes closed.” “So? He’s napping. Naaaaaapping.” “But he’s not breathing.” “I got news for you, Ernie. None of us are breathing. Not Big Bird, not Oscar, not you, and not me. All of us are just dolls waiting to get the stuffing knocked out of us.” “Yeah, […]
Suzie’s House 434 : A Ring of Useless Keys
Nathan told himself yet again that he shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. There’s no way he could have hitched home any faster than Gabriel was willing to drive, but did they have to stop at every friend’s house along the way? At least he was clean, well fed, and warm. He had shelter for the night. It just wasn’t the shelter of his own home.
A Tale of Property Tax and Encroachment.
The last time Old Man Matheson stepped out of his outhouse, the sun was setting. Office lights turned on and the highway filled with rush hour traffic. He was a young man in his twenties when he bought the land. A lot had changed. First houses went up, then sky scrapers. Now his little outhouse was all that remained of his original home. He could hardly complain. He’d sold the land to them in the first place. Now it was […]
Suzie’s House 433 : We Can Do What We Want Now
When Emma walked into the living room, she almost tripped over a pair of white orthopedic shoes – the kind her mother wore to work. A pair of hospital uniform pants lay over the back of the couch. The matching top lay on the floor by the hallway leading to the bedrooms. As Emma closed the front door, her nearly nude mother walked by with a shirt half way up her arms. “Mother!” Emma couldn’t help being shocked. Her mother […]
Hike
“I’m telling you, you’d have never made it.” Jim glowered at Daria from across the crisp white sheets of his bed. “I would too.” Daria glowered back. She sat in the chair next to him. After moving her head a time or two, she gave up and moved the bouquet of flowers. “It’s even steeper than it looks, and if you fall, it’s straight down.” “That just means you have to take your time.” She tossed her hair and looked […]
Suzie’s House 432 : Malaprop Internal Affairs
Gene itched to get practice over with. In a way, it kind of felt like a total waste. He should have said something before they started instead of wanting to do it afterward. As soon as the band started putting their instruments away, he went over to Tracy. “There’s something we need to talk about.”
Betsy’s Grate Day
It started off with a 5 am phone call from her boss that included screaming, panic, and acrimony. From there it went to burnt toast eaten while literally hopping out the door, coffee spilled on a cashmere skirt, a dead car battery, a taxi driver who took the long way and demanded twice the normal fare, and smeared lipstick applied while moving. The waterlogged inventory didn’t help. Nor did the attitude of the fire department. Panicked customers threatened to switch […]
Suzie’s House 431 : No Go
If she groveled a little, that might be fun. Bruce had never seen Tracy grovel before. Of course he’d be disappointed now, too, so it was just as well he didn’t really care. “Why?! We should just go anyway.” Tracy threw her hands up in disgust.
Suzie’s House 430 : Permission
“This.. this is nice.” Emma glanced at Kate as the two of them walked down State Street together. She couldn’t remember the last time just the two of them hung out together. “Yeah. We should do this more often.”
Wired
When Ted was little, he buried treasure in the back yard. He knew he wouldn’t remember where he buried it, so he attached a wire to the box and left the wire poking out of the dirt. After his parents died, he inherited the house. For a few years he let renters stay there. He never did any maintenance and didn’t keep up with the property tax. Eventually, he had to sell it. For old times sake, he went to […]
Suzie’s House 429 : An Unsightly Request
Sophie took a ragged breath. She didn’t want Emma to think she had turned into a complete shrew, but she had to put her foot down. “Over night? In Chicago? No. I don’t think so. You’re too young.” She set her purse down on the side table next to the couch, but didn’t sit, though this conversation threatened to take a while.
Pipe!
“I hate irrigating,” Liam grumbled as he trudged into the field. “What is irrigating?” Alicia skipped along beside him. “We just have to turn the wheels on the gates so the water will go down a different set of ditches. Here’s the first one.” He walked up to the chest-high, metal gate and started turning the soccer ball sized wheel on the top to let the water flow into a new channel. “You turn that one while I do this.” […]
Suzie’s House 428 : Even a Toothbrush
The guest room struck Ethan as so placid it bordered on nondescript. None of the quirky paintings from the rest of the house had made it into this space. No high-end furniture or retro styling here. Just a regular bed, normal dresser, empty closet, inconsequential side table, and a nice window looking over the dark glinting of a lake. He liked it. Ethan felt right at home here.
Suzie’s House 427 : In His Shoes
If there was one thing Ethan wanted to prove to the world, it was that he had the exact right amount of tolerance. Certainly a great deal more than his co-workers at American Family Insurance Group. But not so much tolerance that he would allow bad things to happen. To quote some editor or another, “I like to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out.”
Suzie’s House 426 : Three Cups of Tea
Pete placed three cups of tea on the coffee table. The first he put in front of Ethan, the latest lost puppy to be brought home by Gabriel. The second he gave to Gabriel. The last he kept for himself. He wasn’t a bit surprised when Gabriel clasped his hands together, leaved forward with one of his rare smiles, and said, “I’ll go first.”
