Stories tagged “family”

  • 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

  • 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...

    • Author: dkscully
    • Posted 9 months ago.
    • 5 out of 5
  • 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...

    • Author: dkscully
    • Posted 9 months ago.
    • 5 out of 5
  • All in the Family II (Mature)

    “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

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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…...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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.”...

    • Author: B. Booth
    • Posted 6 months ago.
    • 5 out of 5
  • 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...

    • Author: B. Booth
    • Posted 6 months ago.
    • 5 out of 5
  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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 ...

  • "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...

  • Eulogy From a Productive Member of Society (Mature)

    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...

    • Author: RicoLaser
    • Posted about 1 month ago.
    • 4 out of 5
  • 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...

  • 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...

    • Author: Neleh
    • Posted 9 months ago.
    • 5 out of 5
  • Ode to a red flannel shirt

    Oh, red shirt Buttons of black Make me flash back To feelings of hurt Sorrow, loss, but awesomesauce Memories, of her, My sister, for sure, Good times we were sharing The things we were bearing Oh, red shirt Buttons of black Make me flash back.

    • Author: Neleh
    • Posted 9 months ago.
  • Favorite Things In Haiku (Fav Things Challenge)

    My dog climbs in to bed and noses her way down beneath covers… sleep. Visiting my mom Early morning rituals coffee, sudoku Nestled ‘tween mountains place of mem’ries and good friends Bennington, Vermont Kris writing his songs short ji...

    • Author: Nancy
    • Posted 8 months ago.
    • 5 out of 5
  • Boom! too!

    Well, it would have been a more effective BOOM!, if the gun had actually done something rather than just click. I looked at the gun, feeling mildly bewildered, when Laverne started laughing and dropping a handful of bullets to the dust. “Saw that...

  • Leaving Stowed Treasures Lie

    A boy awakens. The dust of the attic is peacefully settled about him, and the sun no longer streams through the window. Pale light now sifts through, pitiably diffuse and weak. Worries start to nag at the boy, creeping from the shadows and reeking of a...

    • Author: THX 0477
    • Posted 4 months ago.
    • 5 out of 5
  • In the Heat of the Diet

    Well they say that on one side there’s Liberty and Tyranny on the other. Angels and Demons the lot of us. Right Next Door to one another for all this flying Under the Radar. Say are you going to eat anything you look starved? I am but I’ve ...

  • She Is

    She’s got what I like to call ‘Lady Guinevere’ hair. It’s beautifully long and streaked with gold. She flatly refuses that it looks blonde. No one can ever tell what color her eyes are, since there are so many hues jam-packed in...