Family
My sister-in-law dropped my seven-year-old daughter’s bowl on the floor beside the dog. She didn’t know I came home two days early.
The hum of my Peterbilt’s diesel engine had vibrated in my bones for eight hundred miles.
Read Chapter 1 →Short fiction about the moments that change a family, a marriage, a life.
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School & Underdogs
The cafeteria supervisor switched off the security camera before snatching my scholarship voucher. She didn’t see my classmate behind her.
The institutional fluorescent lights of the Oakridge College dining hall hummed with a low buzz that made my temples throb.
Family
My wife tossed a greasy pan at my seventy-four-year-old mother and called her the help. Then I opened the county property tax folder.
The cold October rain beat steadily against the windshield of my car as I turned onto Maple Lane. It was barely a quarter to seven on a Friday evening.
Honor & Service
The captain shoved me onto the training mat in front of the whole platoon. Seconds later, the base commander walked in and saluted me.
The harsh glare of rectangular overhead fluorescent tubes cast a cold, bluish light across the combatives training gym at Fort Vance.
Love & Betrayal
My husband told his pregnant wife to leave his birthday party. He had no idea who owned the restaurant.
My name is Elise Dunmore. I’m thirty-four years old, and last Saturday I was eight months pregnant.
Family
My daughter-in-law took my seat at Sunday dinner. Then I asked about Thursday night.
Layton Street is short. It has eleven houses, and only two on my side. Mine is the small white one with the green door.
Work Life
Her manager ripped off her badge for helping an old man. He owns the company.
At 4:40 on a Tuesday morning in October, Jasmine Holt counted her money on the first bus out of Hialeah. A ten. Two fives. Three ones.
Turning Points
She trashed my late mother’s lunchbox. I own the agency that sends her nannies.
The lunchbox hit the bottom of the steel wastebasket with a flat tin clang, like a dropped pan.
Honor & Service
He threw the kennel girl’s dog toy in the mud. She founded this K9 unit.
The kennel yard at Fort Halden smelled like wet gravel, dog food and bleach.
Love & Betrayal
My husband poured wine on me, eight months pregnant. I’m his new CEO.
On Friday at ten past four, Raymond Cole closed the boardroom door behind me and didn’t sit down.
Turning Points
She dumped out my bag for her bracelet. I knew where her husband took it.
The morning my employer turned my bag upside down on her kitchen island, looking for her diamond bracelet, I already knew where it was. I had driven her…
Family
My daughter-in-law poured ice water on me. The general I’d saved was two tables away.
I’m 68. I live in a small town four hours from the nearest base, and I play bingo on Thursdays at the community hall. I’m good at it.
Turning Points
His mother snatched my glass: “Family only.” She didn’t know whose kidney she had.
I met Owen at two in the morning, in a hospital hallway, wearing a gown that tied in the back and dragging an IV pole on squeaky wheels.
Love & Betrayal
My husband’s mistress wore my engagement dress to our anniversary. I’d read every text.
I’m seven months pregnant with our first baby. A girl.
Honor & Service
He shoved me into the pool and tossed my brass coin to the Admiral’s shoes.
The morning air inside the Brightwater natatorium smelled of sharp chlorine and damp tile.
School & Underdogs
He poured energy drink over my notes, forgetting my ten years of aikido.
By Wednesday night, two nights before finals, I had been in the Halbrook University library for seventeen hours.
School & Underdogs
Coach Hutchins yanked the gold medal off my chest. My thumb was on the mic.
Mateo Reyes stood on the plain white center podium block under the cool floodlights. His chest rose and fell beneath his fitted heather-grey running shirt.
School & Underdogs
He kicked my crutch across the locker room while Coach scrolled his phone.
Three weeks before that Tuesday afternoon in the locker-room corridor, I was two points away from earning the starting point-guard spot during varsity…
Honor & Service
Commander Holt locked me inside the kennel with three “vicious” K9s. They guarded my boots.
The heavy dark blue-grey steel kennel security door slammed shut behind me. A motorized deadbolt locked into the reinforced frame with a heavy clang.
School & Underdogs
A 250-pound varsity linebacker crushed the quiet freshman’s glasses under his sneaker.
Cool fluorescent lights hummed across the state university indoor gymnasium ceiling.
School & Underdogs
He dropped his championship medal at my feet, not knowing I trained at Olympic regionals.
The smell of floor wax and sweat always hung thick inside the wrestling room. On Tuesday afternoon, I cut across the edge toward the physical therapy lab.
Family
My twenty-year-old grandson shoved my seventy-second birthday cake straight into my face while my son and daughter-in-law laughed across the table.
Morning sunlight poured through the bay window of my suburban dining room. It was my seventy-second birthday, but nobody in the room cared about my age.
School & Underdogs
Colt ripped off my jersey in front of the team. He didn’t know what I’d left behind.
The fluorescent tubes above the Halvorsen High wrestling gym hummed with a low rattle.
Work Life
Grady called Jordan a thief and fired her. The old man beside him owned the store.
The black conveyor belt held a crumpled paper grocery bag.
School & Underdogs
Dalton shoved me from my stool. He never expected me to grab his jacket.
At the end of the cafeteria table, Jonah Reyes kept his lunch close.