Categotry Archives: Fiction
Suzie’s House 155: Throwing Lightning Bolts
It was the beginning of July when Ben caught up with me the first time. By then I’d already forgotten my agreement to read something he’d written. No doubt this was a good thing, as I’m sure I would have flinched when I saw him coming if I’d remembered. Not that I’m unwilling to do critiques, mind you. I have no problem at all doing critiques for my critique partners. These are seasoned veterans of writing – people I know […]
Band Aide
Cutting corners, making do. Enough, but never extra. One day I cut myself. Reached for a Band Aide. Fancy, with shaped corners and special glue I have to remind myself It’s leftover, bought on sale, okay to use. I can stop looking and bleeding Counting the cost against the need. I deserve this Band Aide. Click on the image to go to hub at G-man’s blog.
Suzie’s House 154: Ben’s Story
Ben thought about writing about Drew and about Mom and everything, but it wasn’t like that time with Mrs. D and Gene’s dad. Things weren’t so clear to him this time. He wrote a few words, and didn’t much like them, or maybe just didn’t like the way they made him look to himself. Didn’t matter. He ripped out the page in his notebook and threw the words away. So maybe that wasn’t it. Maybe what he ought to be […]
An FBI Agent Opens a Car Door on Lover’s Lane
Continuing from where we left off last week. A limp hand fell through the gap as Drew opened the door, the same hand that had been on the glass moments before. The woman gasped. The man glowered. Neither covered their nakedness. “Excuse me,” Drew said. The other car fell deathly silent. Groaning, Drew opened that door too. Blood. Cover blown, Drew made the arrest. Next week it’s back to poetry for me. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, […]
Suzie’s House 153: Good Bye, Drew
“Mom! You’re home! Where’s Drew?” Ben leaned to the left and then to the right, trying to see around the hug fest between Mom and Diane and Miranda. Seemed like one minute the house was empty, the next everyone came home at once. Except Ben couldn’t see Drew. He tried slipping around everybody in the hall to look out the front door, even though Drew wasn’t the type to hang out on the porch, and besides, Vin was inside, so […]
Between the Right and the Left
So many of you asked me to continue where I left off a couple of weeks ago with Lover’s Lane that I felt obliged. The deal would be going down in fifteen minutes. If Drew wasn’t there before the snitch, his cover would be blown. Half way between a car rocking with noisy lovers and a car with a hand on the glass, a quiet moan that could be love or death, he stopped. The Lover’s Lane stalker? Or the […]
Suzie’s House 152: Have a Little Faith in my Love
“Humph!” Suzie twisted out from under Drew’s hands. She looked as adorable is an angry kitten, sitting there in the bed of the Door County’s Best Bed and Breakfast, her bare shoulders rising above the line of the frilly covers. (The remainder of this episode is on the newsletter.)
Good Bye Wise Friend
He walks slowly into a shroud, lingering, lingering, Talking to those walking behind, Giving his brave monologue of experience In simple words made vast by insight. I would call to him, plead, Please stay. Don’t leave us. But I know the futility. He does not realize his feet aren’t moving. What closes the distance is the shroud. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Click on the badge to go […]
Suzie’s House 151: As the Crow Flies
“Caw! Caw, caw!” Hot, sticky, and entirely too satiated, Suzie cracked one eye open right as the sun spiked a beam through the window into the bedroom of the B&B where she and Drew were staying. A blue sheen off of a barrel shape in Drew’s hands caught her attention even faster than the angular shape of his oh-so-sexy and oh-so-naked rear. “What?” She lifted he head. “Shhhhhh!” Drew spoke without making a move. He hunched into the window, one […]
Lover’s Lane
Walking between two cars, Drew ignored the noisy love of a shallow woman. She screamed, she moaned, she panted in uneven rhythms matching the rocking of the car. Cheap diva. A furtive movement came from the other car, then a hand pressed against the glass followed by a suppressed moan. His every nerve lit up. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Click on the badge to go to the […]
Suzie’s House 150: Games People Play
“You’re kidding, right? You don’t really expect me to play that, do you?” Gene’s upper lip curled in derision. “Sure. Why not?” Diane set the Monopoly board in the middle of the kitchen table. “I’ll be the bank.” Who says Monopoly is a kids game? It was a great way to keep the boys occupied until it got late enough that she could send them to bed. What time were twelve year olds supposed to go to bed, anyway? Wait, […]
Trigvey in the Rain
Trigvey stood outside the hospital, looking up into a rainy sky. Water ran off his face, dripping down the back of his scrubs and drenching the front. “Dr. Taylor, we need you,” the nurse called from inside. “Yes, I know.” But he didn’t move. He should go home to his empty apartment. It least there he would make no mistakes. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Click on the […]
Suzie’s House 149: Ms Super Babysitter
“You really are like a housewife want-to-be.” Gene leaned back in his chair and tried to stare the babysitter down. “I am not!” Diane tossed a narrow-eyed look his way, with her hands still in the fridge. Teasing her was way harder now. She wasn’t afraid of him anymore. He kind of liked that, and he kind of didn’t. “Sure you are. You got the whole apron, skirt, cooking thing going like one of those ancient TV shows. Like from […]
Walking Away
For generations the family worked the land, lived and died in the house. Each child learned the ways of the rocks and fields, the water and the sun. Each generation lost souls to the city until only one remained. He’d never loved this place, but as he handed over the key, he faced regret. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words.
Suzie’s House 148: A Quality Mom
“I am so sorry.” It was probably the worst thing Diane could have said. If she’d stopped to think, she would have kept it to herself. Of course Gene would resent her sympathy. What teenage boy wouldn’t? “Humph.” He shoved past her, bumping her shoulder with his with all the finesse of a bulldog. Well, it was already too late. She might as well own up to her soft heart.
