family
As the Macaw Flies. Top Story - October 2021.
I perch confidently, talons gripping the bark. I wonder...why I've never seen another like me, but is that really important? What is important, I sense, is that I have achieved self-actualization. After all, I was brought here from a place called Brazil (so I've overheard) to protect, direct, and in all ways construct the lives of those to whom I've been entrusted.
By Gerard DiLeo4 years ago in Fiction
A Blueberry Muffin Christmas. Top Story - October 2021.
I sat quietly behind the shop counter with my nose buried in a philosophy textbook, struggling to focus on its contents. I guess this was good for me and all, working at Dowtin Peak’s singular cafe over Christmas break to pay off my student loans. But it was Christmas Day. Who, in a town of 2,000 people, wants to drive downtown in a blizzard for an overpriced cup of joe on Christmas? No one, apparently, because the shop was empty.
By Evelyn Cormier5 years ago in Fiction
Water's Edge
Cordelia felt like she needed to get to the cabin as quickly as possible. She had just gotten off work and was on her way to her first vacation in what felt like forever. When she finally saw it, her heart leaped, she hadn’t remembered her grandmother’s cabin being so grand. It looked like something out of a calendar. Dark wood logs stacked three stories with a wraparound porch, surrounded by the polychromatic leaves of autumn. Getting away from the coast was exactly what she needed, regardless of what her friends had to say. Living on the beach had not helped her anxiety about water. This place seemed as dry as it could get and that was exactly what she really needed.
By Raine Fielder5 years ago in Fiction
Sonata in Three Notch, Alabama
She watched him - his face, up close - and said, through the space in the fence boards, "We need spoons." There was a young boy walking, at the end of the fifty-foot fence just come around the corner, and when the boy trailed the stick along the boards, the sound and vibration of it beat in time to Roy's heart — short staccato beats.
By Daniel J Klein5 years ago in Fiction
Cage or Freedom
Her mother meant well. The caged bird was viewed by many tourists every day. She and her two daughters were just three more tourists. The bird hardly noticed them. But the girls noticed the bird. They both had wishes and desires. The dark-haired child wanted to add the bird's beauty to her artwork, and the blond-haired child was less certain. She wanted the bird out of that cage. Either to be home with her and her family or else to fly free. The bird should be surrounded by family .not strangers and tourists. Both girls stare silently at the bird and its bright red feathers. Both in awe. The mother tried to demonstrate the educational value of the bird. She stated Polly wants a Cracker and even though the bird was not named Polly she repeated the phrase. Tourists after a tourist took a turn. The family moved on shopping for tourist trinkets.
By Antoinette L Brey5 years ago in Fiction
