Posts Tagged ‘Guest Contributor’
Apr
Super
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
You’d probably call it spying, but how else to know when I should come? Sounds are a bit muffled after all this time. My body feels battered; too many buildings leapt at a single bound wreaked havoc on my joints. I’m not as fast either, for speeding bullets whiz by me, and this famous cape I still wear drags in the wind. Lois passed years ago, and where is Lex? Running some nursing home into the ground; I’ve no doubt. Yes, I fly lower and peer through your windows. I need you all now, more than you ever needed me.
From Guest Contributor Colleen Addison
Apr
Ascent
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
I turn aside before Everest’s summit. Hobbling to a low drift, I scoop away the snow. I have found her, still lying where she had collapsed on her fateful ascent years ago. I peel off her goggles. She stares at the cobalt sky, as if daydreaming. Her ivory skin remains unspoilt, despite the passage of time.
Laying down beside her, I unclip my mask and gasp in the thin air.
My heart pummels my ribs while I remove our gloves.
I wrap my wife’s stiff hand in mine and gaze up at the heavens, waiting to see what she sees.
From Guest Contributor Christopher Mattravers-Taylor
Chistopher has been shortlisted in the Summer 2023 and Autumn 2024 Voice.Club Competitions and longlisted in Periscope Literary’s 2023 short story competition. He was also a finalist in Globe Soup’s October and November 2024 100-word competition. His short stories have variously been described as fierce, dark, humorous and descriptive. Currently he enjoys writing short stories with a speculative edge, and now is beginning his debut novel. He lives in Bristol, UK, with an amazing wife and two wonderful children he does not deserve.
His writing is coloured by his experiences as a ME sufferer, particle physicist at CERN, property developer, core driller, disability benefits claimant, Dalmatian breeder, traveller, and more besides. One thing has remained constant in his chaotic life, however: his love of Encona Hot Sauce.
Apr
Heart The Size Of A Car
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
I wake up and it’s almost dark. I hear boom…boom…boom. I think it’s the raccoons jumping across the roof on their way to look for food. Maybe it’s the wind, the porch swing hitting the house, fireworks for some forgotten holiday or the war we’ve been waiting for but when I pull back the curtain on the window in the door, each rectangle of glass is a piece of your thumping heart, the size of a car, its feathery periwinkle veins like map-rivers, red finger-branches steady, wrapping down around the lower chambers, stamping the glass with tree patterns, knocking. Asking.
From Guest Contributor Brook Bhagat
Brook (she/her) is the author of Only Flying, a Pushcart-nominated collection of surreal poetry and flash fiction on paradox, rebellion, transformation, and enlightenment from Unsolicited Press. Her work has won contests and appeared in Monkeybicycle, Empty Mirror, Soundings East, Anthem: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, and elsewhere. Two new collections, Exodus with Red Delicious and I Drink from an Ear: Real Ghazals, are forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2026 and 2027. She is a founding editor of Blue Planet Journal, the founder and facilitator of The Nearby Universe writers’ group, and a professor of creative writing at Pikes Peak State College.
Apr
House Delivery
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Sarah paced the room. “What if she doesn’t like me?”
Josie gently touched Sarah’s shoulder and spoke reassuringly to her friend. “How could she not, you’re giving her a home and she’ll be going to a good school. She’ll make nice friends and be happy.”
“I hope. I’ll be a single mother without a husband; she may not adjust.”
“Stop. Everything will be fine. Let’s have that wine and we’ll watch a movie until she gets here.
They stood and the doorbell rang.
Sarah ran to answer it. “She’s here!”
When Sarah opened the door, it was the pizza delivery.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Apr
The Bigger
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
It was just before the bout between Lefty Louie and Bonecrusher Rocco. Both fighters were in their corners. Louie’s manager, Al, offered his last words of advice…
“Remember, Louie, the bigger they are…”
Bonecrusher was big all right. Huge head, bull neck, massive right hand, and a 15-0 record, all by knockouts.
“Got it, Al. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
Al added a few more lines of disbelief to his face.
“What’d you mean, Louie?”
“Fall, Al. The bigger they are, the harder…”
“No, Louie, hit. Remember, it’s hit. The bigger they are, the harder they hit…”
From Guest Contributor David Sydney
Apr
Wish
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
I cannot tell you how long it’s been since my yacht sank and I wound up here. I remember the storm and jumping into the life boat, praying that the rain pelting on my head eased and a ship would find me. I must’ve passed out from the cold because when I awakened, my body was muddy, freezing and drenched from the water. Sand and ocean surrounded me, and the boat had floated back into the sea. I was stranded on an island.
I wanted to spend time sailing alone.
Every day I wish I went to a movie instead.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Mar
Don’t Do It
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
I tried to warn him. Several times. Maybe that was the problem.
“Listen to your buddy. She’s not the one for you.”
Instead, he hauled butt down the aisle. All I saw was the dimpled boy from our youth slipping away, oblivious of the cliff ahead.
It gets worse. Under the chuppah, our hero someway somehow managed to screw up his only freaking duty: stomping the bejesus out of a glass goblet — missed it by that much.
‘Twas a harbinger of things that came.
He hasn’t spoken to me in years.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have said I told you so.
From Guest Contributor David Thow
Mar
They Were Her Rock
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
“You can do this!” “Be positive.” “You’re not alone.”
An assortment of rocks made up the flowerbed in front of a tall brick building. Some were scattered, others piled, many with painted pictures and handwritten messages.
Walking from the parking lot was perilous at best. Cheryl navigated the uneven sidewalk cautiously, crunching ice under heavy boots, pounding stale snow into powder.
The front glass-door opened. Volunteers greeted at the end of the entrance foyer away from the cold drafts of the outdoors. Someone sat at the reception counter awaiting questions.
Cheryl’s heart raced. Her radiation treatment was about to begin.
From Guest Contributor Krystyna Fedosejevs
Mar
Ed’s Choice
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
“If you were a fly, Ed…”
“What’d you mean, a fly?”
“I’m just asking.”
They were at AL’S DINER. The waitress had not yet taken their orders. Ed knew his flies. That’s why Mel asked.
“So, if you were a fly, would you go for the scrambled eggs or Al’s oatmeal?”
“A fly, huh, Mel?”
“Yeah… Just a regular house fly.”
“Well, I guess the eggs. Now, of course, a horse fly…That might be different.”
“Nah…I’m only interested in regular flies, Ed. I don’t see that many horse flies, compared to the usual house flies, in here today.”
From Guest Contributor David Sydney
Mar
No Thought
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
My doorbell rings with flowers from David. Every year on Valentine’s Day he sends me red roses. The delivery boy smiles waiting for his tip. I hand him the money and shut the door forcibly causing the room to shake. Another vase to take up room in my cabinet.
Just once I’d like David to say he loves me and take me out to a nice dinner. He does the same thing every year without any other thought.
I throw the roses in the trash, the vase cracking into pieces.
I grab my car keys and take myself to dinner.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher