Category: Short Story
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A Slow and Sudden Catastrophe by Lillie Franks
In her first nightmare, he is a mouse, skittering between the towering trunks of chairs and tables, while his death is a famished cat watching him through cruel, green eyes. She is not there in the dream, or she is so far away that even his wide mouse-ears can’t hear…
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One Last Hill by Marco Etheridge
The man climbed the sedge grass hill, treading a path cut into the hillside by thirty years passage of his boots. He owned the land beneath his boot soles, insomuch as any man can claim ownership of a piece of this earth. His land and his name; Karl Nilsson.He wore…
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When Song Dogs Sing by Jennifer Molidor
She wanted to believe he was different than the man he turned out to be. “A man who puts his hands around your throat is lethal. Even if he lets go. Even if it isn’t a full squeeze. Even if he promises never to do it again,” the speaker…
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Ellsworth Count Carnegie Salmon’s Magical Stories by William Kitcher
As I’d been completely mystified and happily amazed during my recent discussions with my friend Gustav concerning Roberto Suarez (see “The Black Swallowtail Butterfly Is Falling,” Flora Fiction, October 2023), I was looking forward to my next dinner with him. We sat at our usual table at The Radish…
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The New Arrival by Douglas Dawson
They call me Chuckie – at least that’s what I respond to. That name’s served me well since the day I arrived here about a year ago. They had me wrapped in a blanket, and a good thing it was, for it was cold outside. My hair was very short,…
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A White Summer Shall by Abhishek Udaykumar
I remember the time we hid in your bedroom after we set our school uniforms on fire. It was the first day of the summer holidays and our hair blew about our faces in the lukewarm breeze. We had planned to go to a movie, but the others wouldn’t let…
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Rain-Stained Notebook by Ian C. Smith
I believe words wrought, my experiences, including some of woe, of hurt, represent memories more vividly to me than photographs of smiles, or home movies of showing off. I savor this accounting from when I could not imagine the shadow speeding my way that was old age, nor its acceleration,…
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It’s your time now, let me rest… by Martin Anguili
No!Not this year, I can’t.I don’t have the strength; I’m tired.No! When it’s enough it’s enough, I need to stop.If others want to move on, it doesn’t matter.I am tired. I don’t want to either! Shouted another.Since the dawn of life we give, we give without conditions, from season to…
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Silver by Jim Bates
The Riverview Restaurant was on the first floor of an 1880s Victorian House that was the cornerstone of the town of Wild Rose, Wisconsin. The upper two floors had six quaint rooms designed for guests who wanted the peace and quiet of a time and era long past; no televisions…