April 2009
2 posts
101 Word Fiction: 015
Christ, that was a long drive. The roads were brimming with vehicles. Each one had its destination, and each was intent on making it there, no matter what the cost. I, however, took a zen approach. It was the journey that mattered most. The clouds were arresting today, a mixture of cirrus and cumulus. There was a spattering of rain, and a few flecks of hail. The ice ground beneath my tires as...
101 Word Fiction: 014
Smoke floated lazily from the tip of the last stick of incense in the house. It barely covered the other scents lingering in the air. Scents of frustration, sadness, lubricating oil, and resignation. It had been a long week. The proposal had fallen through, and the servants were rounded up. Bleeps flourished in increasing intensity as LED eyes cast about wildly, creating a disco floor of...
March 2009
1 post
101 Word Fiction: 013
Time swerved back and forth violently for the poor boy. He blinked hard, and once his vision cleared, he looked hard at what lay in front of him. She was a beautiful girl. Her eyes seemed the size of dinner plates, and the intensity with which they regarded him nearly rendered him useless. He desperately wanted to reach out and touch her, but a backward glance made his disorientation register...
February 2009
12 posts
101 Word Fiction - 012
My eyelids feel like lead weights. My head feels like a freight train that has been re-routed three times in the past week, and which doesn’t know where the hell it’s supposed to be going today. I have a mission; my mark sits beside me, a few feet away, so well-dressed and charming, in her turtleneck sweater. She turns towards me demurely and smiles; the curl of her lips is disarming. Bless...
101 Word Fiction - 011
Oh, sweet angry Jesus, I’ve forgotten my notebook. My skull is full of ideas, swerving and careening about like bees. I feel their presence with the same acuteness of a bee-sting, knowing that they will be forever lost. I have no way of recording them. I have no keyboard, no pen, no crisp pages sitting in front of me, pregnant with possibilities, untouched. The brain lies fallow for long...
101 Word Fiction - 010
She was pretty enough. Dark eyes, cherubic cheeks, and hair that seemed to levitate in a pleasantly disheveled fashion. Someone I might have briefly noticed before some more brightly shining star captured my scattered attention. I had almost settled on ignoring her when she stood, brandishing her guitar. She plugged in and began to strum a melody that was mildly arresting. She opened her...
101 Word Fiction - 009
The monotony is killing me. Green flashes of light punctuate periods of inactivity that are so dull I feel myself going mad. I take naps when things die down a bit, but my slumber is inevitably interrupted by someone jabbing me with a fleshy digit. And all I do is make copies. They feed me documents, I copy them, and spit them back out. How I wish I could stab their owners repeatedly in their...
101 Word Fiction - 008
There had been ample time. The journey shouldn’t have lasted that long. And yet, the sun dipped low on the horizon, and the clouds diffused a rainbow of muted colors. A gust of sand blew up here and there, swirling this way and that for a few moments, before dissipating lethargically. The first hints of thirst had tickled the backs of their throats miles ago. The final drops from their...
101 Word Fiction - 007
The sadness hung like skins on a barbed wire fence. Like water moccasin trophies, wrenched from the depths of the henhouse. I used to get stress-relieving foam duckies from my workplace that were supposed to deal with this kind of thing. They never tended to work the foamy magic they were supposed to. Squeeze all you like, the irritation and pain were still there. It didn’t go away that...
101 Word Fiction - 006
The showerhead sputtered a few times before the water pressure built to a steady stream. Water struck the floor and he shuddered as a cold mist hit his feet and shins. He knew he’d have to wait. This was a game he was accustomed to. He reflected on his day, a very busy one, as he waited for the water to warm. He eased his toe into the stream. It was steaming hot! Wonderful! He...
101 Word Fiction - 005
Inspiration struck hard today. The sun was shining, and the air was cold and bitter. It made short work of my thin sports coat and chilled my bones, only to be beaten back each time I burst into a pool of sunshine. The world seemed to have a glow about it. The air buzzed with so many possibilities. Then I played pool with Paul. Paul reeked of whiskey, body odor, and despair. His wrinkled...
101 Word Fiction - 004
It was only a piece of paper. To be honest, it wasn’t really even paper; it was just zeros and ones, chained together in a virtual imitation of paper. Its infirmity, however, did not detract from the gravity of what the “paper” meant. This paper was the last few months of his effort made flesh. The black marks marring its surface, even if they were only strings of zeros and ones, described his...
101 Word Fiction - 003
Cancer. They cured fucking cancer. And AIDS too. They conquered those two behemoths of the disease world, and yet they still haven’t touched diabetes. A fist slams onto a rickety table. For all the technological advancements, for all the body-dysmorphic augmentation that was possible these days, they still can’t make me a new panchreas. His lymphatic system swells with the thought. Neurons...
101 Word Fiction - 002
Bright light. So bright the bulbs practically buzzed, making the eyes jitter ever so slightly. The light panels were carefully spaced on the ceiling, designed for efficiency. For that end, they were very well designed. Every square inch of the room was brightly lit, with nary a shadow to be found. The only shadow was mine, and it reared away from the room through open doorway as if terrified...
101 Word Fiction - 001
It was early. The clock managed to elude him each time he glanced for it, forcing him to burn precious seconds scanning the laptop’s screen for the sans-serif numbers. One more minute passed him by. Dark eyes stared into his as he looked balefully away from the glowing screen. Such beautiful dark eyes, resting above a gentle smirk. A glance back towards the glowing screen brought another...