Genre: Flash

Leslie Grollman

"On weekends, your home verves with friends in and out of bathing suits or gossip. Barbecues, teas and your famous lemon sponge. There is laughter and splashing."

Erik Peters

"As kids we loved bird-watching at the lake. Every fluttery movement was full of joy: a delight to behold. But there was neither joy nor delight in the dead bird we found by the side of the road. Suddenly, no one could stomach bird-watching."

Pete Riebling

"This year was a departure—the farm was local, not far away. It seemed in harmony with contemporary mores, though. I was confident I’d outdone myself."

Joelle Byars

"After a long, hard day of training his pigeons, he liked to take off his leg, fill it with Jack Daniels, smoke, and whittle."

Elinora Westfall

"It was the woman by the window who made her stay - the woman who, by chance, or perhaps something else entirely, was sitting perfectly still, and perfectly framed between the ever disappearing ribbons of steam."

Linds Sanders

"It was the first time she’d seen him since the divorce and she felt it was so personal: witnessing him in a private moment of getting his solitary needs met."

William Falo

"He was probably a porch pirate. A loser. Alone. I stopped the truck. Was I so different? I was stuck in neutral. Broken."

Terry Wijesuriya

"She grumbled to herself but went anyway. The cool water felt good in the heat of the afternoon, and she put on a frock. She couldn’t reach around to tie the ribbons in a nice bow so she left them dangling until her mother would notice and scold her."

N.M. Campbell

"The line went dead, and Gertrude slumped in her chair. She looked out the window, sighing. The leaves turned as the skies darkened over the Capitol."

Jacob Schlote

"He says he ordered a kid’s meal to be just like you, but you aren’t old enough to understand. It still doesn’t completely sink in because you know there’s not a need to understand, only wanting to bask in the gloriousness of reliving the event."