March, 2015 Archives
Mar
The Scent Of A City
by thegooddoctor in Uncategorized
She hasn’t unpacked yet. The clothes still smell of Paris. No, not of butter and cigarettes. Of that indescribable smell that is the smell of the City of Light.
Cities are redolent beings, each one with a distinct indescribable scent. Indescribable because Bombay doesn’t just smell of sea waves caressing concrete, raindrops infusing with sweat on a monsoon day, or fried green chillies consorting with vada paos. Bombay smells of Bombay.
She needs them clothes now.
They didn’t tell her that you can carry a smell across 7,000 kilometers but there’s simply nothing you can do to make it stay.
From Guest Contributor Sheena Arora
Mar
Our Understanding
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Will you wait for me? I was distracted in the company of voices. Remembered you when I realized the time.
I race, feet positioning haphazardly over cobblestone. Last narrow lane weaves through a city’s historic gate, connects me to the main square where I met you yesterday. Where pigeons scrambled for tossed seeds. Tourists watched.
I see you in the same location with the sun setting behind you. Your body pivots, face gestures into countless expressions. Your hands deliver a new story, in silence.
When you see me, your eyes smile. For you know I understand your art of pantomime.
From Guest Contributor Krystyna Fedosejevs
Krystyna writes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her fiction and poetry have recently been published online and in journals at: Nailpolish Stories, 50-Word Stories, 100 word story, A Story in 100 Words, 101 Words, From the Depths (Haunted Waters Press), ShortbreadStories, and espresso stories. Her nonfiction has appeared in flash fiction chronicles and in Wild Lands Advocate. Krystyna resides in Alberta, Canada.
Mar
The Retreating River
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Peering through the tinted windows, she saw the river’s glittering trickle and the constellation of shiny debris scattered over the vast expanse of sand. Plate-sized, they glinted in promise. Starfish? Shells? Ornaments discarded as the river retreated to curl down in a corner?
Sliding back the glass, she blinked. Stark sunlight shone down on a thousand shell-bright paper plates, discarded as family picnics retreated to idle their way home, say their twilight prayers, curl down in a corner, and let the television flash blindly off their faces.
The train blew past the retreating river with barely a sigh, as always.
From Guest Contributor Aparna Nandakumar
Aparna lives in Calicut, India, and writes poems and short stories. Her work has previously been published at Atticus Review and A Story in 100 Words, and is forthcoming at Cafe Dissensus and Red River Review.
Mar
Other People’s Weather
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
No one had been expecting snow this far south. The local meteorologists all insisted the snow would stop at least a hundred miles north of here. How wrong they were, Dee thought as he stepped outside and was immediately blanketed in large, chunky snowflakes. They had a bona fide blizzard on their hands. Dee smiled, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed the specter of a yeti ambling across the street and into a neighbor’s backyard. No one, not even the yeti, would ever know how Dee managed to steal other people’s weather and bring it here.
From Guest Contributor, Dan Slaten
Mar
Bankruptcy
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The company declared bankruptcy this morning. Everyone is in shock. No-one saw it coming.
Overnight the company’s liquid assets vanished. No-one seems to know why or how.
In a numb state, I work as quickly as possible preparing the forms and statements the incoming Liquidator will require. My heart is not in it.
The Directors need to sign the documents. I enter the Boardroom freely, the door isn’t locked.
The five directors are standing around the boardroom table. Each has a suitcase open on a chair beside him. The table creaks under the weight of the cash piled on it.
From Guest Contributor Barry O’Farrell
Barry O’Farrell is an actor living in Brisbane, Australia. Barry’s stories have appeared in Cyclamens & Swords, 50-Word Stories, and of course here at A Story In 100 Words.
Mar
Worker
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The sparse landscape spread in every direction. There were mountains to be sure, a flat white one to this left and a glass tower to the right, but there was no food within actual reach.
Jim crawled forward, then back, then to the left and right. An observer might think his path random, but Jim’s instinct told him that the best way to find food was this haphazard approach.
He panicked when the giant approached. Only its torso was visible above the horizon, but Jim went hurdling in the other direction.
He wished he’d never left the hill this morning.
Mar
The Vigil
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Even to this day I curse, swear and kick myself for having dozed off that painful night. Though I kept vigil all through her illness, the feeling of guilt has never subsided.
She was my strength.
I knew the meaning of the cloudy eyes and immobility. After three consecutive nights, the strain on my eyes was too much and I slipped. It was at such a weak moment she chose to give up her fight…that hurt me.
My being awake at her last moments would mean nothing, but I feel guilty for expecting the death of my loving pet.
From Guest Contributor Thriveni C. Mysore.