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Latest Stories

March 19, 2024
Fantasy Stories Wondering Monk

Just My Imagination

The alarm clock went off and started playing an awful tune. Tom opened his eyes and closed them back, squinting. He reopened one eye and stood up to stop the torture. The phone was on the desk, in the furthest spot from the bed. Although he changed his way of…
March 19, 2024
Science Fiction Stories Ocelotlzin

Earth Is Dead

Recording… It doesn't matter who I was; I probably lived a long time ago, and I am now just a voice someone added to the audio-visual records. What is essential is the recollection of events that lead to the current state. So, a little history needs to be…
March 08, 2024
Flash Fiction Benoit

Some Enchanted Evening

It was a rugby tackle with tears: Chrissy burst in, sobbing and babbling, hugging James. Her face was all wet, eyes wild. What…? My parents split up, Dad has moved in with his boyfriend and I cannot join them. I am shut out. I have lost my dad. Torrent of…
March 08, 2024
Horror Stories Marvel Chukwudi Pephel

In The Hands Of My Legs

The car pulled up in front of the large salon. The neon sign, that sexy broad thing, on the salon'sroof read "Mr. Gil's All-night Salon". The exhaust pipe of the car was pumping solid smoke, theswirls moving from the car and towards the salon.…
March 07, 2024
Mystery Stories Vanessa Leigh Giles

Casualty of Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Chapter 1 Until Death do us Part ‘Ring, ring!’. I answered the telephone and asked, “Hello, good evening. Who’s this? “Hello.” This is Dr. Smith from Red Cross hospital. “Is this Mr. Locke, John?”, he asked, hesitantly scratching his bald head. “Yes, doctor.…
March 07, 2024
Crime Stories Robert Pook

Bar Room Trigger

Another return journey on footpaths so familiar. He strides across each crack in each paving stone. Regular loose drain covers sidestepped. Mapping long ago mapped in Richard’s desolate mind. His pace hastened by the sight of the oncoming storm. Quickening…
March 04, 2024
Horror Stories Ano Chinemerem

Sanctity

Where should I begin? I could begin by telling you about this comely boy, whom every notable person around the streets agrees his smile could charm the bills off one. Between one smile, there was his goodness, his dreams and humanity—a little far ahead?— but…
March 04, 2024
Flash Fiction Emanuel Diaz

Et Mortui Partium

As Rafael stepped out into the rain, it wasn't the ordinary drops that fell from the sky. Instead, it was a storm of souls, each one taking the form of shimmering jewelry as it cascaded toward the ground. Rubies, diamonds, and sapphires twinkled amidst the…
February 29, 2024
Poetry Jing Li Ava

London

‘Am I in London?’ "I am." Where is Elizabeth? Happy living story All of your chapter Bounlance joy Please my heart Power hand Wise mind Our baby Vow vow Love all love Miss I miss Endless wonder Bring us together Love all love Miss I miss For everything My…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Rob Pook

Life Sentence of The Smith

Born nine months after his country won the World Cup.A child prodigy.Cast off at age twenty-four.Husband, father, emigree, away on the other side of the world.The blue-collar life.The dreams of success.The search for fulfillment.The long years of empty…
February 29, 2024
Mystery Stories Joshua Lowther

The Operator

Jason looked over to his right, his eyes barely able to focus themselves on the subject of his attention. His neck ached terribly from the strenuous movement. He was tired. The captain’s gaze came to rest on the rookie sonar operator sitting tense at his…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Salvatore Difalco

The Chute

At dusk, we left our unit with a soft pink bundle. I carried it through the wet streets and into the black woods. I said I’d take it all the way, the bundle, but that we had to drop it in together. My wife’s green eyes flashed. “Don’t make me do that.” I…

“Dammit, you’re making me crazy, Mike,” she shouted.  “Always the Cubans.  I’m so sick of this Fair Play for Cuba crap, like they’re ready to invade Dallas or something.”

 

“Marcie, think for once. Those guys in Cuba know they can’t do anything.”

 

“I gotta go to the store and get my clothes from the cleaners and then go…do some things.”

 

“Forget it.  Laundry can wait and we got food.  C’mon back to bed.  The world won’t change if you do your things later.

 

His argument was cut off by her banging the front door shut.  She slammed out of the driveway in her Rambler American, irritated at Mike’s bleeding-heart liberal philosophy.  Wasn’t he even worried a tiny bit about his brother stationed at Patrick Air Force base in Florida?  He’d be one of the first to go when the Russkis bombed the U.S.  A sudden bump on the rear wheels made her slam on the breaks.  “What the hell?” she asked rhetorically.

 

Walking around the car she saw a man’s legs sticking out from the wheel, the body was wedged further inside.  That’s when she screamed.

 

The cop arrived in minutes and ordered her to go sit on the curb.  He got into the car, which he pulled forward into Mike’s drive.  She heard another bump as the tires went back over the legs.

 

Stupid cop!  “I didn’t see the guy,” she shouted.  “He was walking in the street, and the trees.…”.  “He came running out of nowhere.”

 

“Easy, lady.  Some other police are coming to sort this out.  Just sit still.”

 

“I didn’t see him.  Is he…?”

 

“I think he’s dead.  You gotta wait for the ambulance.”

 

Another car pulled up and a man in a suit got out.  He flashed a badge at the cop and came over to her, leaning over until his face was just a foot away from hers.  She smelled Listerine.  “Your name?”

 

“Marcia Scoggins.  I didn’t see this guy walk behind my car.”

 

“Easy, I’m not a cop.  I’m with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  I just saw the prowl car and stopped to help.”

 

“Now this is a Federal case?”

 

“No, no, I’m on another detail.  I just wanted to see….  You’re okay?  No injuries?”

 

“I’m fucking shaken up.  I didn’t see the guy.  And he’s dead.”  She paused to blow her nose and wipe her eyes.  “What’s the FBI doing in Dallas?”

 

The man was tall and dark-haired, amiable looking and not at all officious like the cop.  “Another assignment.  President’s coming to town tomorrow and I’m assigned as security.  My name’s Saunders, Special Agent Saunders.”

 

“Kennedy?  President Kennedy?”

 

“Him and his wife, Jackie.  I think they’re making speeches, stuff like that.  It’s great.  My wife once met Jackie.  Said she was really a lovely person.”

 

“No kidding.  You met Jack Kennedy’s wife?”

 

“No, my wife met her.  But maybe not so strange, seeing as there’s probably just five degrees of separation from everyone knowing the president or the Queen of England or anyone.  We all know people who know people who…you know.  Degrees of separation.”

 

“I think you mean degrees of relation.  We’re all related to everyone somehow.

 

The Dallas policeman came up to the pair.  “Poor bastard.  He’s dead.”

 

“You get an ID?”

 

“Name of Oswald.  Lee Harvey Oswald.  That’s all I got.  Just a guy out walking and not looking where he’s going.”

 

“Jesus,” she moaned.  “His whole life gone in a flash.  Think of what he might’ve accomplished.”

 

# # #

 

Walt bounces between writing genres, from mystery to humor, speculative fiction to romance with a little historical non-fiction thrown in for good measure.  His work has appeared in print and online in over two dozen publications, including Short-Story.Me.  Two volumes of short stories, Cruising the Green of Second Avenue, were available until his publisher ceased operations in 2016.  He's also bounced from Fortune 500 firms to university posts, and from homes in eight states and to a couple of Asian countries.  He now lives in New Jersey, a nice place to visit, but he doesn't want to die there.

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