Posts in Short Story
Summer Heat 1970

 

“I can’t take another day of this, I swear,” Rose Wetzel said, to no one in particular. Her oldest child, Marty, the one whose red hair matched hers, was sitting at the kitchen table perusing the sports pages while he ate cold cereal.

“Ma, why don’t ya tell Dad to break down and buy an air conditioner?”…

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Redemption

“You don’t remember me, do you?” She had pulled up alongside him, about six feet from where he was watching the early news on the wide screen television. He looked relaxed in a soft leather chair in the TV room of an exclusive assisted living facility.

He barely glanced at her. “Nope. Should I?”

“Yes, I believe you should. It was…

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The Northern Pacific Railroad Murder

Freight conductor, Terry Preston felt the movement first, the squeaking wheels of the Northern Pacific freight cars as they rounded a curve. He didn’t want to open his eyes; his head was already pounding. Then he felt something drip on his forehead. A drop of water? He groaned.

“I thought they fixed that leak in the roof of this damn caboose,” he said. He rubbed the drop from his head and opened his eyes. Immediately he stood up. “What the hell?” His hands were red, his shirt and vest had red spots too, blood. He looked at the top bunk, not sure what to expect...

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The Missing Piece

“…Good morning, Myles,” Duncan said. “I was just giving Detective Brower here his assignment for tonight’s shift when a call came in to get someone from Homicide over to 1855 Old Hickory Place. Looks like some dame caught one in the left temple last night. Home invasion maybe.”

 Myles looked at Brower and whistled. “You take that one. That’s a big money area…

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Easy Money

I was sitting in the student center around noon, drinking coffee and waiting for my girlfriend, Andrea. I had a lot on my mind, mostly trying to figure out how I was going to pay my tuition for the next semester. My father left us in 1961, when I was 14, for some...

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The End Zone

“Elliott, where’s Kaitlyn?” Aidan asked.

“Not coming until the second half.” He tugged on his longish, red beard. “Maybe not at all.”

“What’s up with that, man? I thought you guys were tight again.”

Elliott walked into Aidan’s kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “This all you have, Bud Light?”

“You’re supposed to bring your own beer, Elliott. Remember?” Aidan, a tall, slim young man, was laughing.

“Right, I think Kaitlyn’s bringing it.”

“If she comes,” Aidan said....

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Bumpy Road to Phoenix

...Derner was bone tired and he had not had a shower for two days. Once his tractor-trailer was safely parked, he had to decide whether to eat first, or take a shower. He was so exhausted that he was tempted to skip both. Situated right behind his driver’s seat, his sleeper was very tempting. Then again, he remembered his bedsheets were stinky enough to keep him awake. Add one more thing to his to do list. No sleeping until he changed his sheets...

 

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Carrie's Birthday Surprise

Carrie opened her eyes and looked at the glow in the dark stars painted on her bedroom ceiling. Her mother did that for her when she was nine, a year before she died. She traced one of the stars with her finger, remembering what her mother said about them. “You can reach for the stars with your heart and your mind.”  Her mother constantly encouraged her to be bold. She understood Carrie’s need to make her own choices, whenever the opportunity presented itself. Limited by her circumstances, she yearned for freedom. Self-doubt, a loving but overprotective father, and the facts of her life, made the kind of freedom teenagers took for granted, seem as unreachable as the starts on her ceiling.  

She rolled...

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Santa's Helpers

 

It was a cold morning in Phoenix, two days before Christmas. Temperatures had dipped into the low 30s, making the car, even with the few blankets they had, uncomfortably cold. Marvin Jackson and his wife, Melba were huddled together in the front seat. Melba’s feet, covered by heavy woolen socks, rested on top of the small cooler on the car’s floor. Their three children, girls 6, 9 and 14, were taking turns sitting in the middle seat, trying to keep warm...

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