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Weekly Contest #321
Gary knew something was wrong the moment he entered his apartment. A chill permeated the living room. They kept the thermostat at 68 degrees to save money, and it was an unusually cool spring in New Jersey, but this was more than temperature. Waves of cold fury flowed from Ellen as she sat cross-legged on the couch.She snapped off her headphones and briskly tapped the spacebar on her laptop, pausing a show. "Where were you?"Gary froze. The elation he'd felt from winning suddenly evaporated. His mouth went dry. He absently clicked the deadbol...
Weekly Contest #302
Lucas cradled the phone between his ear and shoulder so he could get to his beeper. It was clipped to his scrub bottoms and vibrated insistently. “Hello,” said a pensive voice in the phone receiver. Lucas grabbed the phone off his shoulder. “Hey, Sarah, it’s Lucas Walker. Are you on back-up call tonight?” She paused, and then said tersely, “Yeah.” “I’m really sorry, but we’ve got a stroke head in the E.R. I’m going to have to assist Dr. Friedman, so you’ll need to come in.” “Are you serious? Why can’t you just do the case and catch up when i...
Weekly Contest #301
Alex inhaled deeply and reminded himself what he had to do. Turning the knob, he entered the Department of Surgery conference room. Two people, seated on opposite sides of a large mahogany table, stopped talking and looked up at him. The table rested on a thick paisley carpet, surrounded by leather upholstered chairs. Closest to him sat Dr. Murray Caldwell, head of vascular surgery and Vice Chairman of Surgery. He was mid-sixties, Black, with salt and pepper hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. Known as a pioneer in endovascular techniques, h...
Weekly Contest #299
It was in the fall of 1985 that Jack’s dream of attending an Ivy League college went down the drain. During a trigonometry midterm, third period, at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia, Mario Lombardi lost his mind and decided to cheat.They sat next to each other in Mr. Rysak’s class. Jack was in the fourth row, third seat back, and Mario sat next to him on his left. Now anyone who has been through high school knows that people who are good at cheating don’t get caught. Unfortunately, Mario wasn’t good at cheating; in fact, he never c...
Weekly Contest #298
The warehouse sat in a squalid corner of Sector 3 which is why the rooftop generator ran day and night. The ever-present hum of the engine permeated the building. Luther paused as he stepped inside, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. He knocked twice on the door at the far end of the dusty antechamber.A panel slid open at eye level. “Who’s there?” asked a gruff voice.“Hey, Jimbo, it’s Luther.”The panel closed with a snap then a deadbolt popped, and a chain rattled. Jimbo opened the door with a sawed-off shotgun propped on his s...
Weekly Contest #297
It was late afternoon in Kenya. They stood at the edge of a small village. Mud huts, squat ugly brown rectangles with rough walls and thatch roofs, sat clustered in a semi-circle. Each had a couple of tiny windows and a low door. The chieftain told them the insects were so thick in summer that they couldn’t have larger windows. This was July, winter in Kenya, so bugs were not a problem.The handmade trinkets consisted mostly of bead jewelry and little banana fiber animals about the size of a tennis ball. They lay on a bright red checkered Mas...
Weekly Contest #296
Paz felt a rumble from deep inside the volcano. “Did you hear that?” he yelled. Sleege’s dark green lizard body was nearly doubled over against the blistering wind. If he heard he didn’t bother to respond. They walked in single file along a goat path. Sleege’s short legs and prehensile tail propelled him along the irregular rocky surface. He held one arm across his face, just above his broad snout and wide mouth. Thorny nettles with gray branches and sparse green leaves bordered the uphill side of the path. The two thieves crept along the ou...
Weekly Contest #294
The email instructed Joe to meet Mr. Klein at the catamaran beach in Ventnor. He was asked to dress casually and, specifically, to wear swim trunks. He would find the site nine blocks south of Atlantic City, just past the lifeguard headquarters. They helpfully suggested parking in the lot next to the tennis courts.Joe was 27, tall and lanky, with dark brown hair parted to the side. It was chilly for mid-September because of the weather, which is why he wore his hiking raincoat. His Ford Escort beeped when he locked it.As he crested the ramp ...
Weekly Contest #293
The thing about the rifle shooting merit badge is the target practice. To earn the badge a boy scout needs to hit the bullseye five out of five times in a single round. The bullseye is a black spot about the size of a quarter on a white paper target. The target is tacked to a wooden board fifty feet from the firing range. Jimmy was losing his race against time. He knew it and it bothered him as he lay on the thin nylon mat sweating in August heat. His armpits were damp with body odor. The endless buzzing of cicadas rose and fell throughout t...
Weekly Contest #292
Gary shut the door from the garage with his foot while pulling off his jacket. The door jamb rattled with a resonating boom. He threw his coat into a cubby, dropped his keys on the counter and hurried into the family room. “Hey, Babe, I won!” he exclaimed. Ellen, five months pregnant, sat curled on the sofa with a comforter over her legs and belly. A fire crackled in the hearth behind a wrought iron screen. She removed her headphones and placed her laptop on the coffee table next to a cup of tea. “I’m sorry?” she said. “I won the chess tourn...
Weekly Contest #291
The rectory attached to St. Matthew’s church was built with a thick gray limestone veneer. Two-story tall and rectangular, it was more utilitarian than beautiful. There was solidity, permanence, about the structure that comforted most people, especially the parishioner’s. But on this chilly December evening, with snow falling for the last few hours, the entire neighborhood was covered in a soft white blanket. Snow accumulating on the ledges and tops of the windowsills gave the rectory a serene gentleness. Inside, Father Joseph Brennan, “Fath...
Weekly Contest #290
He swirled the last bit of vodka around the bottom of his glass. The ice cubes, shrunken to the size of dice, clinked pleasantly. He downed it quickly and placed the glass in the built-in holder on the left arm of his chocolate brown recliner. The television buzzed quietly, the screen filled with black and white static as it had since the last emergency response public service announcement had gone off air. Three days ago, he thought. No, Ellen was bitten three days ago, so the screen went blank four days ago. Shame washed over him as he rem...
Weekly Contest #287
Everything started after the dead monkey reanimated, smashed out the glass cage and attacked Dr. Pangilinan. The ear-shattering biocontainment alarm blared moments after the glass cracked. By the time Dr. Lee turned to see what was happening, the creature had exploded into the lab. It leapt onto Pang’s arm, biting deeply, breaking bone. He swung his arm wildly launching the creature across the room. It landed with a meaty thud, slid sideways on the polished floor, and swept the legs out from under a heavy table. The table tipped over, with t...
Weekly Contest #286
The mahogany canoe battled against an ebbing tide, barely making progress in the last thirty minutes. Junnu watched from atop a dune on the little island as a pelican dove headfirst into the water with a splash not far from the gunwale. The briny smell of ocean air washed over him pleasantly. Ten oars, five on either side, pulled powerfully by select hands from his father’s navy. Still, they struggled. A rogue wave crashing hard against the side nearly tipped it over. This was followed quickly by a flash of amber light and a puff of smo...
Weekly Contest #285
The mustard yellow sign creaked as it swung gently in the chill December air. “Barry Tavern” it read, but with space between the two words. A fluorescent bulb near the bottom flickered like it was on hospice, awaiting its last exhale. Damon leaned forward into the breeze, striding carefully across the uneven sidewalk. He paused to stare up at the sign for the third time that week, knowing what the missing words were, and hoping he’d have the courage to say something tonight. The icy cold door handle burned his fingers as he yanked it open.&n...
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