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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…

“Mr. Peterson, you’ll never guess what I just saw!” From the bug-eyed look on Billy Dean Dickinson’s face, I know he’s about to spin one of his wild yarns. The boy’s eleven, the sixth kid in the Dickinson herd of eight, and has an imagination as bountiful as that guy who wrote Star Wars. Knowing this kid, he’ll say he saw Elvis or Michael Jackson … or maybe that Tupac fella. I sit back in my rocker and watch Billy Dean come flying across my yard like he’s got a pack of bees in his britches.

He runs up my porch steps and says, “I’m walkin’ home from the store when this little blue car comes barrelin’ around the corner. I have to skedaddle out of the way to keep from gettin’ run over cause the guy’s drivin’ so crazy. Then I see it in his backseat.” Billy Dean’s eyes widen. “My jaw dropped and yours would too, Mr. Peterson, if you got an eyeful of that thing. It’s gotta be the weirdest creation on God’s green earth!”

Some folks here would wager that Billy Dean is God’s weirdest creation.

My wife, Ellie, says the boy’s not weird, he’s just a little misguided. Says he needs attention so he makes stuff up. Personally, I think Billy Dean’s from the land of the whoppers – and not the good kind like they got at that Burger King place over in Fogerty. Everybody knows the kid’s a fabricator; I used to call him a liar, but Ellie set me straight.

Billy Dean was seven when he swore up and down he didn’t take his little sister’s candy. Said it was a chocolate-loving ninja who “snatched it from Tammy Lynn’s clenched little fist.” Right, like ninjas hang out in itty bitty places like Grove Hill. Bobby Dean, that’s the boy’s dad, asked the kid why his sister would accuse him if it wasn’t true, and the answer was, “I don’t know, Daddy. Maybe she’s stupid or somethin’. I mean – look at her!” When his dad pointed out the chocolate smudges on Billy Dean’s mouth, the kid’s eyes got even wider than usual. Then he turned on the tears. Between sniffles, he said, “I was real scared, Daddy. Why’d that ninja smoosh Tammy Lynn’s Hershey bar in my face?”

Now he’s pacing in front of me, muttering something about calling those tabloid people to get them out here to take a look. Says he bets the National Enquirer or The Globe would pay big money for a story this weird.

Last year Ellie was hanging the wash when she saw Billy Dean in his backyard with his friends. “Naw,” she overheard the boy say. “That’s not my dad. My real dad’s a big shot in the government – some sort of spy or somethin’. He’s got to keep a low profile – that’s what Ma calls it – so that’s why he don’t ever come around. Ya can’t tell nobody though cause it could get him killed. Then I’d really be in hot water.”

Ellie was agitated when she told me, insisting the boy’s mama was as faithful as an old dog. When my wife calmed down, though, she felt sorry for Billy Dean – said that with five older brothers and two younger sisters, there’s not enough attention to go around. Then she said that with most kids nowadays having at least one step parent, Billy Dean was probably just trying to fit in. I told her making excuses for the boy stunk as bad as a big ole pile of bull pucky. She set me straight on that one, too; said I’d best watch my big ole mouth.

Now Billy Dean turns to me. “It’s the craziest thing I ever saw, Mr. Peterson. A two-headed cow! Two heads right next to each other, stickin’ out the window big as you please.”

I shoo a fly away from my face then reach for my glass of lemonade. “A two-headed cow stuffed in the backseat of a little blue car, huh? Well, I gotta hand it to you boy; at least you’re original.”

“Dang it,” Billy Dean says, face getting all blotchy. “How come nobody believes me no more?”

“Well, son, if you’re gonna make up stories, you gotta make ‘em more believ …”

Right then a little blue car comes hauling round the corner – its backseat filled with the craziest looking two-headed cow I’ve ever seen; worse than that ugly-looking thing they had at the State Fair a few years back.

Just like Billy Dean said it would, my jaw drops. The boy turns to see what I’m gawking at then turns back wearing an ‘I told you so’ grin. The car barrels out of sight, and I’m left wondering if there wasn’t at least a little bit of truth in all those whoppers the kid’s told over the years, including the one about his daddy. I mean, but how do you explain the boy’s being the only one in that family with blonde hair, buggy eyes, and ears that stick out like off-road spotlights?

 

 

Bio:

 

April Winters hopes her humor helps people forget their troubles … if only for a little

while.

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