Oct
Death Of A Student
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The email arrives just after 7:30 am, and its subject line is blunt: “death of a student”
You read this slowly. Twice. Open the message. In two sentences, the Dean of Students tells you everything: She was killed in a car accident. They’re working to remove her from your roster.
You delete the message, drag it back out of the Deleted Items folder, read it again.
The news isn’t public yet. You can’t say anything in class.
Her seat is empty. You pass out the day’s reading assignment and have an extra copy, which you quietly drop in the trash.
From Guest Contributor Shane Borrowman
Oct
Truth
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
When I awoke in the hospital, I knew the truth. The agonizing pain in my back, the nurses rushing me to the operating room, with the walls spinning around me. The doctor’s “everything will be okay, Katie.” But it isn’t.
I’m bleary eyed from the sedative, but I feel a hand in mine, my husband’s. I’m too weary and can’t speak, so I give his hand a squeeze, and he gently squeezes mine back. He speaks of his love for me and how he’ll never leave. Then the doctor comes in and he lets go.
“Will my wife walk again?”
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Oct
Yesterday Once More
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Dr. Billows pressed Go on his time machine. Inside the vessel nothing happened. But through the window, everything in his lab stretched and distorted into a brilliant mixture of light and darkness, indicating he was tunneling into space time. His calculations had been correct, at least the first part.
As quickly as the journey began, it ended. After checking the console and confirming the date at his destination, he unsealed the hatch.
He emerged into his laboratory exactly one day earlier. Confronted with his past self, he told himself not to ask Dr. Morgan on a date later that night.
Oct
Runaround
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
For his eighteenth birthday, Lathan got magical boots from Grandpa, so nobody could catch him up.
When cyclopes attacked the village, Lathan ran into a leafless forest, where witches boiled bones in cauldrons; so he fled to the Glass Mountain, opaque crystals everywhere, and their shimmering princess offered engagement; flushed in embarrassment, Lathan roved to a roadside tavern, mocked by goblins, and a bounty placed on his head. He circled around the empire for a month but eventually ended up at home.
As cyclopes growled, Lathan finally faced his worries, selling the boots for a rusty sword at the blacksmith.
From Guest Contributor Bettina Laszlo
Bettina writes fiction to convey what is beyond expression. Her work has appeared in NUNUM, Dragonfly educational programme, and is forthcoming at 101 Words. She lives in Budapest with her fiancé.
Oct
Two Ottos
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
By the time he awoke that Saturday morning, Otto was exhausted. It was another night of running dreams – of being on a treadmill, getting no place fast. And, then, of the treadmill ratcheted up to greater and greater inclines.
How much more could he take?
Painfully, step after step, he stumbled into the kitchen. Were his feet blistered?
There, in the cage on the counter, was Little Otto, his hamster.
And on the ridiculous hamster wheel.
Little Otto’s legs moved faster and faster.
“Stop it.”
But Little Otto only sped up.
“At least wipe that damned smirk off your face.”
From Guest Contributor David Sydney
Sep
Lay Your Body Down
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Maria watched the crowd gathered around her. It was too many people, too much forgotten history and buried resentments that she’d rather not remember. Let all of them leave her in peace.
Well not all of them. Not John. Not Heather and Tony. Even Steven was growing on her, though Maria still believed her daughter had rushed into her marriage. At least he was respectful even when Heather was too strong willed.
Everyone else could go. These last few moments should just be for the ones she truly cared about. Leave the eulogizing for after she was dead and buried.
Sep
Open Arms?
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
When I took the online family DNA test for fun, I didn’t expect to find out I have a sister. After I read the results, I confronted my mom, and she admitted the truth that she gave birth to a daughter before she met and married my dad. My heart ached knowing all these years I could’ve had a sister and didn’t know.
I’m driving on the parkway, the radio blaring. In fifteen minutes, I’ll be at Cassie’s house. The big sister I didn’t grow up with and meeting for the first time.
Will she welcome me with open arms?
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Sep
An Hour Ago
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
This chipmunk has run up to me twice now. It retreats again and I crouch to tie my shoe. My eyes track my new acquaintance, surrounded by lush pines, miles of mountain-top views, and a deer carcass ransacked by the food chain about ten feet away from me. A ding distracts me from my observations–you texted me. We were meant to go somewhere an hour ago, but an hour ago I was already on this trail. The predators which are surely on this path, brush which camouflages them, and the overlook’s treacherous heights will always be more unwavering than you.
From Guest Contributor Morgan Sanders
Morgan is a student of biology at Pikes Peak State College.
Sep
Consequence Of Failure
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Dale stares at the target. Everything is riding on him. The difference between victory and defeat. The difference between eternal glory and a lifetime of infamy.
Dale takes a deep breath and bounces the ball three times. He focuses his mind on this simple act he’s done a million times. He refuses to look at his teammates, or listen to the fans nervously watching from the stands.
If he misses, his family will receive death threats. He’ll be retired in shame.
Dale releases the ball. He doesn’t need to watch to know it’s clanked off the front of the rim.
Sep
Jimmy James
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
My grandmother was a great lover of music, though her taste had calcified in the mid-sixties. She liked the early Beatles. She liked James Brown. She liked Little Stevie Wonder. But her favorite band was the Vagabonds.
According to family legend, which she was happy to share over jam and croissants, she met Jimmy James when she was seventeen and worked at the department store as a sewing assistant. She helped the tailor fit the suits for the customers. She always smiled when she said Jimmy James was a good tipper.
I wondered if she meant that as a euphemism.