Hanging by Beaton Galafa Death.It came one evening when everyone else was sleeping. It crawled in the dark outside, hissing along the night winds that were shaking leaves and branches of the big mango tree standing tall a few footsteps from our house. I knew people die. I had shed a tear when I saw mum weep three years earlier when our eldest sister finally closed her … [Read more...] about Hanging by Beaton Galafa
Family Story
Delivery by Denis Bell
Delivery by Denis Bell “It came out positive.”"You're kidding!”It would seem so. The news was surprising to Ruth because Sandra was old. Not Betty White old, but easily old enough to be Ruth’s mom.“What did Jim say?”"I didn't tell him.”“Sandy, he’s gonna have to know sometime.”Sandra didn’t even bother to reply to this, just twisted her mouth into … [Read more...] about Delivery by Denis Bell
Helping Me Up by Bruce Ransom
Helping Me Up by Bruce Ransom “Are you going to be my new daddy?” she asked directly.“I don’t know,” he said, looking down at the flowery dress squirming beside him on the edge of the living room couch. “I like your mom, but to get married you have to really, really like each other.”“You mean love each other” the little girl corrected.“Yes,” he laughed … [Read more...] about Helping Me Up by Bruce Ransom
Escape by Murdock O’Mooney
Escape by Murdock O'Mooney “We got to get out of here,” I tell her. She tells me she knows and that she’s waiting for the right time. “You saw what he did to Johnny- he’s got a black eye and fat lip... he’s all beat up.” She says that it’s none of our business. I stare at her like she’s stupid, though I know she’s not.She smokes a cigarette and looks at her old blue car. … [Read more...] about Escape by Murdock O’Mooney
Daddy Dearest by Sue Buckwell
Daddy Dearest by Sue Buckwell My father was a psychoanalyst and instilled in me a fear of almost everything. Being a learned man, he also taught me the scientific names for each and every phobia I have amassed over the years. That one, for instance, is called polyphobia.My first memories are of the peculiar house my parents built when I was quite small. It was a big house … [Read more...] about Daddy Dearest by Sue Buckwell
A Friend Indeed by Sue Buckwell
A Friend Indeed by Sue Buckwell As brand new elementary school teachers, Faith and I bonded when we discovered, in mid-September, that we hated children and agreed that if we ever again encountered our respective high school guidance counselors, we would do them serious bodily injury for suggesting that we might be well suited to careers in education.To mitigate our … [Read more...] about A Friend Indeed by Sue Buckwell
ABOUT A LITTLE BOY AND A LITTLE GIRL by Hans Anderson
In a big town crowded with houses and people, where there is no room for gardens, people have to be content with flowers in pots instead. In one of these towns lived two children who managed to have something bigger than a flower pot for a garden. They were not brother and sister, but they were just as fond of each other as if they had been. Their parents lived opposite each … [Read more...] about ABOUT A LITTLE BOY AND A LITTLE GIRL by Hans Anderson
Brothers By SHERWOOD ANDERSON
Brothers SHERWOOD ANDERSON I am at my house in the country and it is late October. It rains. Back of my house is a forest and in front there is a road and beyond that open fields. The country is one of low hills, flattening suddenly into plains. Some twenty miles away, across the flat country, lies the huge city, Chicago.On this rainy day the leaves of the trees that line … [Read more...] about Brothers By SHERWOOD ANDERSON