Stories tagged “family”
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Μαντάμ Μέγαιρα (Madame Shrew)
—Ξένια! Ξένια! Ξύπνα, κορίτσι μου – δέν έχουμε πολύ χρόνο! Η μέρα δεν είχε ακόμα αρχίσει και ήδη η μάμα έχει στείλει την Ελευθερία να μ
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Opposites in the same place
I threw my hood over my head, and ran to the porch to get out of the rain. I hesitated in knocking on the door. Friends, family, society-they all considered us two to be polar opposites. Me entering his house would be, unheard of almost, frowned upon. ...
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Slipping her moorings
She’d snuck down to listen to the sailors’ tales for as long as she could remember, even if it did risk a beating. She’d learned patience from it. It had taken so much to fool her Ma into believing she was asleep, for she’d neve...
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Hell isn't always other people
Sure, he’d got their invitation. Every god-damn year, he’d got it, no matter how far he’d roamed. Common decency suggested that it would be polite to respond, but he couldn’t even bring himself to make that much contact with the...
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All in the Family II
“Disposing of a body isn’t as easy as it used to be,” I said, my mother shakes her head “What did I tell you? Huh,” a whispered demand. I hit replay and re-run our conversation but most of the words are hidden beneath the splatter. “I can
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Death Was One Step To Victory Of Rid The World Of Evil
It wasn’t long, the clock ticked past 12. My hands was gripping the chairs handle, I could feel the sponge on my head soaking up my sweat. I swear I could see my wife standing in the audience, with my three year old daughter. No tears, no screams...
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The Sound Of Silence
Hello was the beginning; good-bye was always there to end it all. The streets were cold and empty. The cars sit idling in the road way, while rusting away in the eyes of Mother Nature’s course in the world. I sit and listen to the swings blowing in t...
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As I Lay Here Dying (A Mental Letter from a Civil War Soldier)
Dearest Molly, As I lay here dying, the blood-red sky above me full of smoke and memories, I think of you. I can’t stop pondering the thought of everything we’ve been through together, and all the things we could have become. Your scent has...
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Old Glory
I…I’m dying. Heh, life does flash before your eyes. How about that. Mom and Dad…life sure was good back in New York. Hey—this is my earliest memory! My third birthday in 1906! P.S. 118…twelve years of my life I spent at that school…...
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Rose Garden Part IIII
“I could tell you one story of this house, right were you are sitting a young woman. Maybe in her twenties served a wealthy man, by the name of Keith. She had loved that man, served his every wish. She was no match with his wife, but that never stopp...
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And I Saw the Ocean
I drowned on August fifteenth of the year 2006. The sun glinted off of the pellucid water; it created a web of turquoise and white around me, struck me dumb with its brilliance. A cloud of fine ivory sand followed my wake whenever I moved. I was sure t...
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Grim Reality
“It’s not pretty,” Mom warned me, careful to stand between me and the family room. “He…” She paused, and I could see her training as a nurse kick in. “He fell when he went. He didn’t feel anything.”...
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Standard Procedure
“He died alone.” Mom’s stoic nurse-look faltered behind her tears. “I found him when I came home from work this afternoon. It’s standard procedure, if something like this happens.” We sat for several minutes, and I s...
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Saying Goodbye
He just looked asleep. I couldn’t get over that fact. He’d wake up any moment, now. “Do you want to hold his hand or anything?” Mom asked. I shook my head. “I want to remember the last time I hugged him on Sunday, not̷...
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You at the Funeral [Retro Ficlets challenge]
When you are a six-year-old boy dressed up in a suit with your hair all combed, you are bound to be a little uncomfortable. When your parents won’t stop crying and you can’t figure out where your big brother went, it’s normal to be confused. Your...
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Family Reunion
Dylan was the black sheep in the family. Therefore, all the little cousins loved him. The rumble of his motorcycle pulling up outside made the adults all cringe, tension in the room forming a white elephant so large it stifled the conversation. Dinner ...
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"I told you so."
Rocks slip underfoot. Soft and warm, soothing water laps at my toes, pulls at my heart. The sunset glances off the water, sends stones of light skipping off the surface. Below… who knows what is below. But the surface looks perfect. Maybe that...
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Eulogy From a Productive Member of Society
Here are the three things I know for sure about my late brother-in-law Joseph David Kepler: In twenty years I think I saw him sober three times. He was a terrible poet. And that overdose was no accident, and neither were any of the others. The brutal t...
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The Last Point
I bore my corner of the casket with dignity, despite the sweltering Nevada heat. The ground around the open grave was broken and uneven. Our plan involved lowering the casket gently into the grave with long straps, like a whale in a cradle. As we moved...
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Heaven
Marianne’s eyes swelled with tears, as she was introduced, for the first time, to her grandparents. Their withered cheeks pulled into a wide grin, and their wrinkled hands met her smooth palms. “I’ve always wanted to know you,” ...
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Tradition is the Illusion of Permanance
The house is silent. No playing children, no christmas music; only the reminder of the fallen’s absense. Beverly, with a delicate, aging hand, holds strings of garland between her fingers. Plastic beads slither from a box and onto the floor. An u...
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Open Casket
Suits shuffled, Dresses stepped, Images of my father Followed where I wept.
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Accountability: Hate
“Don’t touch me.” she says, scarcely audible. Rachel tries to hold back her sadness— seeping in uncontrollable drops onto the white napkin neatly tucked in a triangle by her empty plate. James withdraws his hands and braces hims...
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Greg's Race
During the cool, calm evenings of Summer. Greg would slip on his running shoes and take a run around the block. Greg looked at the houses he passed. Every house; built identical but once filled with people, they became unique. Mr Carter, tending to his...
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The Journal
To the airport in a hurry; plane leaves soon. We run, stand in line, carry bags, we have limited time. Bags are checked; next—the gate. No time for words. She hands me a journal. No time to read it. Rushed hugs, rushed goodbyes, rushed tears and it i...