Posts Tagged ‘Time’
Aug
Overindulgence
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
She was tired and had too much to drink. Her eyes drooped to provide the perfect screen for strange imaginings. Time passed.
Chloe jolted awake to a shift in the buzz of conversation, her vision presenting a weird split screen of a now empty hotel bar, a new day’s sun barging through the large windows and reflecting off each polished surface to sear through the fog in her brain: judgmentally bright.
Her clothes smelled of staleness and smoke. Stale vomit prowled the back of her throat.
Chloe waddled to the bathroom, suddenly aware of another need.
She’d open late today.
From Guest Contributor Perry McDaid
Jul
Mid-Night Dilemma
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Am I awake? Had I actually slept? I was fighting the urge to check my watch but the curiosity of what unholy hour this was got the better of me.
Slipping my hand out from under the sleeping bag I paused.
No.
Just close your eyes, go back to sleep it’s too early for this.
As I closed my eyes, my thoughts swirled attempting to deduce and desperately seeking an answer I knew would destroy my chances to sleep again this night.
Just sleep.
I can’t.
Inevitably the unbearable urge won and I was cursed with the answer I sought.
From Guest Contributor Michael Major
May
Whimsy
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The statue of young Buddha had been an exemplar of serenity when first placed under the tree. Time had passed. Wars had come and gone. Nutrients and sun had been converted into growth by the woody plant’s armoury of respiration and generative processes.
Aashi grinned widely at her discovery. The base of the tree had grown around and in front of the old idol, seemingly intent on squeezing it silly.
She looked closer. Through some trick of lichen growth, the once droopy eyelids and superior smile had been transformed into an expression of squashed distress.
Her tinkling laughter wasn’t malicious.
From Guest Contributor Perry McDaid
Mar
There Are Moments, Like These
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
where I see this beautiful creature’s frayed leash, the far end trapped under a great stone. So great I assume she cannot lift it. She tells me how time is consumptive, and while consuming us, so it must erode the stone. But the longer she or I stare, the slower it seems to weather. Is it any wonder her running throat is yanked taught? The urge to break the circle is the legacy of choice. Look at her and promise, “I cannot lift that stone. But I can sit here and wait until you do. Your wings, they’re pinned beneath.”
From Guest Contributor Nick Scott Christian
Nick’s poetry has appeared in Poetry Quarterly. He lives in St. Louis and currently studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Jan
Family Portrait
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
I held her dainty hand, her fragile bones hidden deep within her withering skin. Her once cerulean eyes, now slate-grey from worries of not knowing, look at me longingly as if I had all the answers. Her time was slipping, and that’s what she wanted; to be with her Papa… her Mama… her Mamoo… I wish she could remember; the stories she told… her children’s names… me… I opened the photo album on my lap. She smiled down at the pictures. “What a beautiful family you have.” My eyes fixated on her, wishing she could remember… they’re her family, too.
From Guest Contributor McKenzie A. Frey
Dec
Predestiny
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
It was a typical thing for him to say on a first date. “In the future, if we both find a way to travel back in time, we should agree to go back to now, right now, at precisely 8.00pm. Then we will know for certain if it is possible. Deal?”
As she answered, a loud crash startled the couple. Covering their ears from the terrifying screeches, they peered through the restaurant window to a display of smoke, sparks and flashing lights.
She held his hand tightly. Within the twisted frames of metal, lay the scorched bodies of two travelers.
From Guest Contributor JR Hampton
Nov
Four A.M. Flyby
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Disease shrunk his body to nothingness; pain drew up his limbs, tightening his skin until not even his love for her could stave off time.
Finally, he spread his body wide in ecstasy, unfolding each joint, stretching parched skin that once pulsed strong with every heartbeat. With breath diminishing, he flexed each finger, arm, leg, until he was lifted up and out into the dawn.
Four friends awoke, soothed by the tender touch of a breeze kissing their brows. His soul passed; he whispered, “Goodbye, old and treasured friends.”
It was his leaving hour; it was his four a.m. flyby.
From Guest Contributor Karen Sallee
Mar
Hotspot
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The lone imagineer of the radioactive sand cloud that froze Florida in death and time worked for Disney. Tourists, natives, gangsters, and gators were rendered untouchable beneath a toxic sheet of glass. The reflection burned up satellites and crisped drones mid-air, and it was agreed the whole place should be forgotten, for now. So they forgot the flamingos and the dancing girls and the cigar factories in Tampa where the son cubano played on. Nobody remembered to forget the island past Key West where an old man sold boat rides to Havana for five dollars and a bottle of rum.
From Guest Contributor Courtney Watson
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.
May
Watch Out
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Time is my mortal enemy.
There are never enough minutes in a day. No matter how scheduled and organized I try to be, time always manages to sneak up on me, slipping through the cracks, flying past me unnoticed, baffling me every time. It’s a constant battle that begins the minute I wake up each morning. I start each day feeling invigorated and optimistic, but no matter how much I accomplish, there are still tasks left unfinished, boxes left un-ticked. With each passing day, I slump away feeling defeated.
In an effort to boycott time, I never wear a watch.
From Guest Contributor, Kristen Lum