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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…

Benjamin was the butt of everyone’s jokes. It wasn’t that he was dumb. Just livin’ on some other planet. The town council was embarrassed to have a 26-year-old sittin’ on a bench all day in front of the court house, so they gave him a job polishin’ cannonballs piled beside the Civil War 10-pounder there. But a week later, Benjamin announced he was quittin’. “I found my own cannonball and I’m goin’ into business for myself,” he told the mayor.

 

They hooted at that.

It got quiet for awhile and people noticed he had his nose in a book he’d taken from Ralph’s Barber Shop. It was that old H.G. Wells' thing about time travel. Well, hell, no one minded long as he was out of people’s hair.

I personally liked Benjamin. Encouraged him to go to the library and read and help carry boxes around. “That Wells was an interestin’ writer,” I said. “Nowadays there’s lots of what they call science fiction, but Mr. Wells probably invented time travel and space travel.”

“Did he invent it because he was unhappy where he was? Cause people laughed at him?”

“Naw,” I said, “probably just cause it was more excitin’ than what was goin’ on around there.”

“Whyn’t more people do that? Solve their problem by goin’ somewheres else?”

I laughed at that. “Good idea, Benjamin. Maybe you could give that some thought. Just look what President Kennedy just did, gettin’ us to the moon.”

I didn’t know what I’d done by sayin’ that. Benjamin stopped hangin’ out at the town square, and when I finally did see him he seemed terribly distracted.

“Can’t talk,” he said when I stopped him. “Too busy.” Then he ran off down the street.

On my route deliverin’ mail out of town a week later I happened across a great pile of stuff where the state road makes a turn by Amos Bradford’s place. There was corrugated metal sheets, two-by-fours, a whole mess of what might’ve been tractor parts. And on top of the pile was the outhouse I surmised came from Bradford’s old house.

“Hey,” I shouted, when I seen the outhouse door closing behind Benjamin. “That you, Benjamin?”

“Can’t talk now. Busy.”

“Well, you’re not goin’ to hurt yourself are you?”

“I discovered the newest form of gettin’ around. Time travel. I’m on my way, but I may come back.”

“Why would you want to leave Bellows Falls?”

“Cause everyone thinks I’m dumb as dirt! I’ll show them I ain’t!”

He absolutely shouted through the door.

I got back in my truck and thought it best to leave well enough be. But it was maybe a few days later I asked around if anyone had seen Benjamin. Nobody had.

Now, what the hell had I said to make him do some damfool thing? I guessed it was the H.G. Wells comment. A few more days passed and the sheriff got to askin’ around. Benjamin didn’t have no mother or father, and never had family so that was the end of it.

We figured he’d cut out for other parts of the world.

I guess it was long about the 1990s when I had to go to Burlington. Saw the newspaper in the hotel someone had left and there was Benjamin’s picture. He didn’t appear to be any older than when he disappeared in ’66 or ’67, but he was smilin’. There was a woman at his side and a baby in his arms. The little caption said, “Here today and gone tomorrow. Benjamin Salt visited Burlington with his family last week. He said he was planning on investing in local businesses because the area promises to have a great future.”

That Benjamin always was somethin’. I tucked the paper under my arm, intendin’ to take it back home. Then I bet the fellows in Bellows Falls will be sorry they tore his contraption apart.

# # #

Bio: Walt bounces between writing genres, from mystery to humor, spec fic to romance. His work has appeared in print and online in over a score of publication, including Short-Story.MeTwo volumes of short stories, Cruising the Green of Second Avenue, are available at Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers. He’s also bounced from Fortune 500 firms to university posts, and from homes in eight states and a couple of Asian countries.

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