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Latest Stories

June 04, 2025
General Stories Dylan James Harper

The Bylaws Of The Revolutionary Council

A loud clang rang through the bunker as the door slammed shut. “I really think we have a chance to win this thing!” Greg’s voice echoed throughout the cold walls. The three other inhabitants of the bunker, Jeff, Ben, and Malcolm, all sat around a table…
June 04, 2025
General Stories Michael Barlett

Resurrection

The man lay there in extremis, no longer thinking of cool abstracts like ‘catching the last train for the coast.’ He gulped great rasping breaths – holding them impossibly long – before finally exhaling in a shuttering burst of putrid air. He had been…
June 04, 2025
Flash Fiction Benoit

Time Warp

Nothing was in order, nothing optimal. Germany was awash with refugees and adventurers. Only Angie could hold it together; but then she opened the gates! Who knows why? Other politicians were dinosaurs in the museum. Integration was the solution, was it? That…
June 04, 2025
Fantasy Stories M.D. Smith

Car Of Dreams

Randy Jenkins, age sixty, lived the kind of life people don’t write stories about. He sold office supplies out of a small showroom in the back corner of a strip mall just outside Corpus Christi. He wore beige. Ate microwave dinners. And spent more time…
June 04, 2025
Science Fiction Stories David Rich

Earth Forever

With an exhale, Damerae unclipped a lint-free cloth from his desk, snatched it from the air, and wiped his glasses. He preferred staying hidden in his cozy interior office in the bowels of Orbital Counterweight Station of the International Space Elevator. But…
June 04, 2025
Flash Fiction George Vu

A Stolen Kiss A Beautiful Dream

It had been a long, exhausting day for her – a blur of endless tasks and demands. Yet, despite it all, she had fought for a moment to be with him. Stealing time from the world around her, she walked into the room quietly, hoping to surprise him. After a few…
June 04, 2025
Flash Fiction Benoit

Cow Bells

Based on actual incidents. Swiss Cabinet meeting, 15 March 1943 The American Ambassador has no comment, no explanation. We can expel the Ambassador in protest. I prefer he remains here under close surveillance. The bombing yesterday was of nuisance value; it…
June 04, 2025
Poetry Markus J

Signed To The Message

do your bit for king and country. are you a coward? or are you brave? so now is the time to sacrifice you don`t want to let your mates down it`s a kinship of the soul you know that’s the Australian way it was the message that was kept being sold so they…
June 04, 2025
General Stories Michael Barlett

On The Rebound

I was sitting in a bar knocking back my third Jack Daniels, when a drop-dead gorgeous blonde walked in. As she paused, surveying the room, I raised my glass in a complimentary salute. It was a ‘Hail Mary’ move, and I could hardly believe it when she came…
June 04, 2025
Science Fiction Stories M.D. Smith

Unplanned Landing

Red lights pulsed. Sirens howled. “Alert. Navigation failure. Proximity alert. Impact in thirty seconds.” Captain Mara Voss shot upright in her cryo-pod, lungs gasping like a drowning swimmer. Across the chamber, the rest of the crew jerked awake, groggy and…
June 04, 2025
Poetry Markus J

Marching To The Same Beat

an angel stands under a lonely pine showing the way to the lost souls the ones who innocently answered the king’s call and now flags fly half mast for those that no-more stand buried in some far off foreign land the pipes call out to the brave and the angel…
April 29, 2025
Fantasy Stories Chris Turner-Neal

The Gorgon’s Climb

I am the only one of us who calls it rape. Stheno, when she must mention it, says “our bad luck;” Medusa shrugs and says “gods don’t have to ask.” And I say but they should and she says but they don’t and Stheno says this attitude doesn’t help, and she’s…

Ding!

Adam despised the sound of a new incoming message in Laura’s smart phone.

Ding!

Adam didn’t need his eyes to know what Laura was doing right then. Her clothes rustled. The dimmed click-click-click. Yeah, Laura was reading her emails. Her short-lived snort meant bad news.

“I must go back to the office,” Laura said.

“I thought so.”

Laura’s warm lips lingered on his forehead. Adam felt a slight draft of air as she got up. Her sneakers squeaked away in the direction of the bedroom. Alone on the couch, he searched with his palms for the remote control.

“Beam me up, Scotty,” was the last dialogue he heard as he clicked the off button.

“Right away, captain.” Adam replied to the shut down plasma.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

High heels tapped the floorboards in increased tempo. When they stopped right next to him, he perceived Givenchy’s Very Irrésistible.

“Oh, no. Not that again!” He noticed the contained annoyance in her voice.

“What is it?”

“It’s the back-up system. One of the outsourced offices had a power failure. When they got back on-line their records were gone.”

“What would they do if your phone were off?”

“Adam, please. I’m their IT, they gave me the phone so they could reach-”

“So they could reach you twenty-four-seven. I know, Laura. It’s just. . . I can’t. . .I have a hard time with you going off to work on a Sunday night.”

Her soft hand caressed his cheek. Laura had nice hands. Adam had liked them since they shook hands the first time they met.

“It’s already Monday in that part of the world.” Her soothing voice with her stroking of his hair was almost enough to calm him down.

Ding!

Almost.

Ding!

She stopped the stroking and the click-click of the smart phone resumed.

“I don’t care,” he said.

“We need this job.”

“No, we don’t” He couldn’t help feeling like a stubborn child.

“All your special equipment cost money.”

“Special?” He had issues with people rubbing his disability on his face. It hurt twice as much when it came from Laura.

“Speaking computers, Braille printer. They don’t come cheap.”

“I make my own money.” He felt that statement required him to stand on his feet so he stood up.

“I know you do.”

“You don’t have to support me. I hate you working all day. We need time as a couple.”

“We watch movies almost every night.”

Adam picked on her use of ´we watch’ but they were past the embarrassment such comments would bring when first meeting a disabled person. Yet, he plowed on his cause. “Yes, but three out of four times you have to either run to the office in the middle of it or work from here.”

She didn’t reply. After an interminable minute she sighed and said, “Maybe I can take a couple of days off. Would you like that?”

“Some time off, huh?” An idea began to form. Inspired, he only hoped his smile did not betray his real intentions.

“Yes, sometime just for ourselves.”

“We’ve earned it.”

Adam let Laura’s lip linger on his without responding. Her tongue probe out to caress his lower lip. The hairs on his arms stood up. She could still give him goose bumps, even after five years. She stopped kissing, but did not break away. He could smell her breath. Spearmint flavored Listerine.

“Wait up for me.” She gently squeezed his groin. “Will you?”

Adam nodded and she withdrew. The slam of the front door announced her departure. He stood there until the aroma of her perfume faded away.

He considered the implications of his recently conceived plan. It was a long shot. Way long shot, one that may get him thrown in jail. On the other hand, some time off with Laura would be very well worth the risk.

Adam walked to his work station. He powered up his state of the art “speaking” computer. She was right on that. He donned headphones, he didn’t want neighbors to listen in on what he was about to do. After typing his ten-digit password he got opened a few applications on the desktop.

Two hours later he stopped tapping on the keyboard. The room was silent except for the humming of the computer and his excited breathing.

“I think that’ll buy me some quality time with Laura.”

 

* * * *

 

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 8:29 PM

 

“Faster, boy!” The unique and deep voice of Sean Connery playing Henry Jones captivated Adam.

It was the middle of the airplane and car chase. The Last Crusade won an Academy Award for best sound mixing. Adam thought it was well deserved. They should have won for the John William’s score, too. It was wonderful. A stereo surround system can involve even a blind man into a movie. Adam loved to sit with Laura and hear any movie, but he enjoyed some more than others.

“I’m going for more popcorn.” Laura got up.

He listened for the faint sound of her bare feet. “You know, barefooted you can almost sneak up on me.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Her voice came from the kitchen.

When she returned, she sat next to him. She rested her head on his shoulder. Adam took a handful of popcorn from the bowl. Before Laura he had liked it buttery and simple. She preferred plain and salty. These were salty.

He passed his arm behind her and placed his palm gently on her cheek. He sniffed her hair. He loved the fresh essence of her citrus shampoo. Was it the Garnier or the new Verbeena she talked about in the market last week? Not that he really cared either way. She was with him and that was the important thing.

She smelled of Channel No. 5. She wore the popular perfume when she wanted to play sexy. Adam smiled thinking about the after-movie love making. He had unplugged the land line and turned off his cell phone. It was his idea of hanging the “do not disturb” sign in a hotel door.

He didn’t worry about Laura’s phone. Her service had been down for two consecutive days.

Adam wondered if he should confess his “intrusion.” A small intervention to free some time off Laura’s hectic after-hour calls.

Nah, he concluded, nobody would believe a blind geek hacked into the big Canadian corporation and shut down the Blackberry system.

 

The End

 

J. H. Bográn, born and raised in Honduras, is the son of a journalist. He ironically prefers to write fiction rather than fact. José’s genre of choice is thrillers, but he likes to throw in a twist of romance into the mix. His works include novels and short stories in both English and Spanish. He’s a member of the International Thriller Writers where he also serves as the Thriller Roundtable Coordinator.

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