Categotry Archives: Fiction
Rumble
Matt got off the train in LA. The vaulting stone work in the station creeped him out. People moved through it as if perfectly safe with tons of rock over head. Idiots! Lunatics! Any minute now the ceiling could come tumbling down and all would be lost! The hair on the back of his neck lifted. He ran for the exit, but stopped long enough to shout. “Run! The building is falling!” “Crazy.” The people nearest shook their heads. Everyone […]
Suzie’s House 534 : Back to the Crib
Emma didn’t want to go home. You’d think after so long she’d either get over it or not feel it anymore – that reluctance to go to the place she was supposed to belong. And she did belong. Mostly. But here she was shuffling her feet as she made her way from Gene’s house. It felt like she’d been kicked out of her real home even though she never slept there or left things there or anything. It wasn’t really […]
Buried Treasure
Alicia leaned on the fence while she watched Farmer John dig a hole in his garden. “That’s an awfully deep hole. Are you planting a tree? Maybe starting an orchard?” She thought that would be nice. “Nope.” “What then? Looking for buried treasure?” She grinned at her little joke. “Yep.” “Really?” She stepped on the lower rail to get a better look. “Gold doubloons? How did you know it was there?” “Time capsule.” He picked up a box and dropped […]
Suzie’s House 533 : Kidnapped or Something
“You’re back!” Ben looked so relived and grateful that Vin wasn’t sure what to do with himself as he lead the rest in through the kitchen door. “I was afraid you got kidnapped or something.” “I…” Vin suppressed a chuckle. When he thought about it, wasn’t that exactly what had happened? He’d been kidnapped by a serial killer. Sheer luck let him escape. But it wasn’t like he should explain all that to a teenage boy. “Ben! I’m so proud […]
The Argument
“I don’t want it,” Daughter said. She tried to hand back a cut-glass candy dish that used to be her great grandmothers. “Just take it. It’s much better than anything else you have.” Mother looked around the humble apartment with disdain. “I don’t want anything from you. You were never there when I needed you. Now you want to make me drop out of college and take over your store. Get out!” Mother slammed the door. Daughter threw the dish. […]
Suzie’s House 532: Ice Cream
“Oh no! I forgot!” Ben jumped up, knocking over a bowl full of potato chips. “Watch it!” Tracy put an arm across her face to fend off the flying crunchies. “Cut it out.” Gene’s voice was a low grumble and he put an arm around Tracy all protective and everything. Emma just watched from her little corner of the den. She wasn’t in the mood to be in the middle of everything right then.
Country Folk
Ted was two thirds the way in to town when he ran into Sally. “Nice shoes,” she called from the fence. “Oh. These?” He glanced down at his Doc Martins with duct tape wrapped around the toes. “They’re just….” “No need to explain. I live far enough out of town to have to jury rig stuff too. Let me know if you need more tape to hold them together.” With a smile and a wave she headed into her field. […]
Suzie’s House 531 : Ride
“Vin!” Miranda threw open the car door and jumped out, almost falling off her wicked heels before he caught her and pulled her close. Her soft curves settled nerves he hadn’t realized were raw. “Thank G*d! Vin. Are you sure you’re alright?” She ran her hands over him, then checked her palms as if to find damage that way. When nothing turned up, she stepped back to arms length and gave him a visual check. Vin felt a chuckle rumble […]
Suzie’s House 530 : Hitchhiker
“We’re wasting time.” Miranda had already said the same thing a dozen times in the last half hour. Frankly, Suzie was getting fed up with it even as she understood Miranda’s feelings. Being patient when the man you loved put his life on the line was torture. Try doing it for over a year, Miranda, Suzie thought to herself.
Lookout
Sally and Alicia went hiking in the hills even though Alicia really wanted to go shopping in the city. Only neither one of them had money and hiking is free. “Why do you like it so much here, Sally? It’s so dry!” Alicia eyed a dead tree. “What are you talking about? It’s not like there’s nothing but dirt. Look at all this green!” Sally walked right past the tree without even glancing at it. “Hey, come look out from […]
Suzie’s House 529 : What Comes to Hand
It took over fifteen minutes for Vin to free his hands from the rope Petrovich had tied him up with. It would have been even less time if not for all the lurching as the pick up maneuvered through Madison. That or the distraction of Petrovich’s previous victim rolling around on the floor of the camper. As soon as he could, Vin slapped first one, then the other hip pocket. No phone. He checked his shirt pocket. Nothing. He didn’t […]
Out With the Old
First day of high school Alicia, Sally, and Liam sat on the swings at the park. All three had their arms wrapped around the thick iron chains, leaning forward and kicking their feet but not actually swinging. “It’s all different now,” Alicia complained. “Yeah. They took out the slide and jungle gym and put in that plastic stuff.” Liam grumbled. “Yeah. Now they got the good stuff, but won’t let us play. Oh, here comes the cop now.” “Hey,” he […]
Suzie’s House 528 : A Puddle in a Parking Lot
Drew, Suzie, and Miranda stood in a circle around a suspicious puddle in the store parking lot a few feet from where they found Vin’s car. “It might not be related,” Suzie said hopefully, though she knew full well the odds were against it. “This was his phone.” Miranda shook the broken and crushed fragments of a phone in her hand. She picked through the shards until she found a sticker of a heart on black casing. “I put this […]
Suzie’s House 527 : Voice of Reason
“What’s going on?” Suzie left the groceries on the kitchen counter to find out what had people stomping up and down the staircase. “Vin is missing.” Drew opened the cabinet in the den and took out his holster. He slapped a hand on the empty thing, muttered under his breath about government permits and threw the holster back in the cabinet. “What do you mean his missing? Isn’t he just at the store?”
Penny Wise
The children’s museum had a special donations area. It held a big, metal collection box at children’s waist height that was shaped like the inside of a tornado. Kids would put a coin in their choice of slots, then watch it roll around and around, down to the covered collection at the bottom. Done right, the coins might flip, or jump on the way down. Nancy thought it was a wonderful way to raise funds until her son stripped all […]
