Posts Tagged ‘Guest Contributor’
May
A Singular Engagement
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
William cradled his seven billion secret.
So many sparkles, surfaces splintering sunlight.
He couldn’t name a single confidant. The gravity and the gossamer belonged to him alone.
He snapped the case shut. The light remained. Would it fit? He believed so. He hoped so.
Then again, it didn’t matter. If it fit, they’d tell a fairy book tale. If it didn’t, they’d laugh, they’d reconsider, and they’d refit, impervious to the punches.
All of which they would come to know together. In the meantime, he’d know all alone, confident yet precarious in the center of his chest.
Witnesses could wait.
From Guest Contributor Frankie Sturm
May
Martinet
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
He enters the classroom on Monday morning.
They ignore him, will not be silent as he speaks, chatting about the weekend, this and that, cocooned in subcultures he would not understand.
He cannot break in to quell their energy, bend them to his will, force the curriculum upon them, teach them ‘respect,’ nor corral them down the narrow path his life has taken.
He would beat them if he could but, thwarted by laws he would repeal, he can only shout.
“Shut up! Listen!” he bawls, getting their attention, momentarily.
“Why?” one of them simply asks.
He has no reply.
From Guest Contributor Ian Fletcher
Born and raised in Cardiff, Wales, Ian has an MA in English from Oxford University. He has had poems and short stories published in The Ekphrastic Review, Tuck Magazine, 1947 A Literary Journal, Dead Snakes, Schlock! Webzine, Short-story.me, Anotherealm, Under the Bed, A Story In 100 Words, Poems and Poetry, Friday Flash Fiction, and in various anthologies.
May
Unlucky Fate
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
After six months of recovery in the hospital from my car accident, I’m finally going home.
I walk outside into the fresh air, taking deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling. I can’t stand the musty air in hospitals. My cell rings distracting me from my happy moment and I answer it.
“Hey, Charlie, I heard you’re discharged today.”
“Yeah, I’m on my way home as we speak.”
As I’m crossing the street, I walk straight into an oncoming car. People gather around me as I’m on the ground unable to move.
I guess I won’t be enjoying my own bed tonight.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Apr
Taking The Leap
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Andrea says.
I look over at my best friend, then down at the water below us. I swallow nervously before replying.
“It can’t be that bad. After all, Alex has done this at least twenty times.” I wince at how shaky my voice sounds.
“Yes, well, Alex is Alex. Remember the time he stayed underwater for two minutes because Tim offered him a frappe?”
We laugh, breaking the tension.
I take a deep breath. It’s time. “Alright, together. Breath, crouch, and jump.”
We clasp hands. I see the doubt and jump off the cliff.
From Guest Contributor Neroli Ladner
Apr
The Sprocket
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
A tooth broke off a sprocket of a bicycle once. It made a small chinking noise hitting the street but the rider kept riding.
The sprocket tooth said, “Too bad, I liked that bicycle, but maybe being on my own will be easier; plus, I’ll be free of the other teeth, and that awful chain.” And the tooth went about being a bicycle himself.
But being a bicycle when you’re just a sprocket tooth is harder than it looks. A storm came and swept the tooth into a storm drain; it was lost forever. That bike never ran as smoothly.
From Guest Contributor Henry Eutaw
Apr
Bad Journey
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Rob drove down the back road at excessive amounts of speed. After losing his job, his fiancée, Felicia, broke off their engagement. He swerved into the next lane and an oncoming car approached.
“Watch it, nut!”
“Screw you,” Rob yelled.
Those few seconds his eyes were off the road, he came head on with a tree. His head slumped on the steering wheel, horn honking.
Several hours later he awakened handcuffed to a hospital bed with a policeman standing next to him.
“Once the doctor releases you, you’re coming to the station with me.”
Could Rob’s life get any worse?
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Apr
Final Act
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Scott stared at the blank screen and pondered how to begin his obituary. Prone to bouts of depression, solitude, and introspection, Scott Beeker lived a quiet life filled with anger, passion, and, most importantly, love. Yes, that sounded nice, he thought. During the final years of his life he traveled the country in search of romance and adventure. He found both one night last May in the basement of a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. There was so much to tell, wasn’t there? So many stories that were more interesting than he’d first thought. If only there was more time.
From Guest Contributor Dan Slaten
Apr
The West Wing
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
We’d barely set down our suitcases when Vic said he wanted to leave. “Let’s wait for a Howard Johnson. This place is a dump. Look, cockroaches!”
And there they were, pausing to look at us as they strolled across the bed. “Yes,” I said, “but they’re dressed to the nines.”
They were stunning, her in a lacy ball gown with puffed sleeves and a train, fashioned from the iridescent wings of flies, and him in his coat and tails and tiny top hat.
“Let’s stay,” I said. “Maybe we can learn something.”
“Don’t be stupid,” he said. “Roaches are roaches.”
From Guest Contributor Brook Bhagat
Brook’s nonfiction, poetry, and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in dozens of publications, including Little India, Outpost, Nowhere Poetry, The Syzygy Poetry Journal, and Rat’s Ass Review, and she is the co-owner and chief editor of BluePlanetJournal.com. She holds a B.A. from Vassar College and an MFA from Lindenwood University and teaches creative writing at a community college. She has completed a full-length hybrid manuscript and is writing a novel.
Apr
Zip Bombs
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Six nuclear bombs head for Russia. A short time later the world’s arsenal is launched. Life on the planet changed overnight.
Jon is hiding in a barn with other civilians. As soldiers break in Jon transforms into a pile of hay bales. Soldiers gather the civilians and escort them to camps. Julie, still in the barn, escapes detection because she‘s covered in hay bales. Jon saved her life. Jon changes back to human form.
Afterwards Jon and Julie become best friends. Months later, Jon tells her his secret. “Those six nuclear warheads, they weren’t bombs, that was me,” says Jon.
From Guest Contributor Denny E. Marshall
Apr
The Night’s Hope For A Better Tomorrow
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Dreams projected on a ceiling from a restless mind. A vision of a better tomorrow plays from the imagination onto the stucco. With pleading hope for happiness to join the rising sun, the reality of sadness can be temporarily cast aside. Muscles relax and the burden lessens with the promise. Eyes close and colors dance a firefly ballet on the back of eyelids. Fantasies and nightmares disturb the slumber but recede with the buzz of an alarm clock. Golden rays of butterscotch pour through the glass and warm the face. I rise, we all rise… with hope in our hearts.
From Guest Contributor Jordan Altman