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Weekly Contest #351
Confusion couldn’t figure out how one was meant to skate at Rockefeller Center. She didn’t know where to rent the skates. Where the ticket booth was. She didn’t know how long one could skate, or if time limits even existed. She looked down at her nephew, and he yawned. He was too sleepy for ice skating anyway, she decided, and she asked him if he’d like to get some dinner and then go back to the hotel. He agreed, because he was an agreeable child. Confusion had begun to wonder if her nephew might be Agreeable, but her sister had warned her a...
Weekly Contest #350
I didn’t tell my mom I was adopting a dog, because when she was six, a dog bit her, and she’s been deathly afraid ever since. I don’t really like dogs either, but I saw this little one walking down the road, and when I heard it whimpering, I had to save it. It had matted light brown fur, and it was limping a little bit. I remembered my ex-boyfriend telling me that you can’t go near a wounded animal, because it’ll lash out at you, but the dog let me scoop it right up. That seemed like a sign that I was meant to save it. When I got it back hom...
Weekly Contest #349
I do mass for the other infected. Every Thursday and Saturday. We don’t do Sundays. Seems like something from the Old World. The Previous. When I do mass, they come up with their scabs and their grimy eyes and their loose teeth and I bless them. Each of them knows me by a different name. Some call me Father Timothy. Some call me Father Chris. Some just call me Father. The mass is held at a church that is not my church. The priest from this church died in Wave 2, and last I heard, he was seen eating a parakeet under a bridge up near Scovie. I...
Weekly Contest #348
He asked me to marry him on the beach towards the end of March. It was just over forty degrees, and the creature in the sea told me to accept the proposal. I would have accepted it no matter what, but hearing her voice made me feel confident that it was the right decision. After he got up from the sand and kissed me on the cheek, we ordered an Uber and went downtown to sing karaoke. On the way to the bar, I took the shell I’d picked up from the beach and put it to my ear. The voice inside told me to sing Natalie Cole or Gladys Knight. I want...
Weekly Contest #347
I thought my father owned this house, but I’ve been wrong about better things. I was wrong about how long a tomato can stay in the fridge. I was wrong about someone loving you hard enough so that it never stops. I was wrong about naming my dog and my second dog and the dog after that. I can never get a dog’s name right. I thought my father owned this house until Mr. Shell, who I just met, knocked on the door and told me there’s no rent. I knew there was no rent, because I never knew there had to be rent. Mr. Shell gave his condolences upon m...
Weekly Contest #346
We went to the Thai place off East Main for the last time on a Wednesday evening. Ruby likes going to karaoke at this bar down by the wharf and they start at 8pm, so we had to meet by six. Didn’t they used to start at nine? They did, but people seem to like it, so they’re starting earlier, but finishing earlier too. Although, if you tip the girl, or, I should say, if enough people tip the girl, she’ll usually do another hour. Oh, that’s nice. We were the only people in the restaurant other than some Mormons a few booths up from us. I didn’t ...
Weekly Contest #345
Nothing was out of the suitcase. The apartment he found online had come furnished and so far he was still wearing the same sweatpants and t-shirt he’d stepped off the plane in. That had been two days ago. He’d only nearly be able to afford it in the off-season, and once summer arrived, he’d have to find a new place to live. In the meantime, he could enjoy the circular layout, the spacious kitchen, the hardwood floors, the view of the shared backyard from his third floor window, and the little desk where he could study Psalms and write intent...
Weekly Contest #344
When Buzz Aldrin couldn’t make the moon mission, they called Linda. She was a single mother of two and a pool player. Well, player is the wrong word. She was a hustler. Linda would walk into pool halls in her sundress with her clutch held tight to her stomach. She’d claim to be looking for her no-good husband, and oh, while she was there, maybe she could play a game. Was it hard? Could someone--some nice man--show her how to play? Three hours later, she’d have rent money in her pocket and a few pissed off guys threatening her. Linda didn’t k...
Weekly Contest #343
When it was time to object, Gemma stood in front of the forty or fifty assembled guests and ran her hands down the front of her slightly wrinkled cream dream. She cleared her throat, and all forty or fifty heads turned to look at her. It’s moments like these that people believe are staged or performative. There’s so much inauthenticity in the world that anything out of the ordinary begins to feel produced. Gemma looked down the aisle at the happy couple. Their officiant was their favorite college professor. His name was Eduardo String and he...
Weekly Contest #342
But we suspected that Gina, the parakeet, had survived. We had been led to believe that she was doing well. That she was living with seagulls now. The Baron would be most proud of the ease with which she adapted to being a part of a new community. A community of sea fowl. Perched on bridges and on the stone walls that separate the beach from the main road that connects one town from another. We believed many fables about Gina, and in our believing, we developed a newfound affection for the Baron. And the Baron was our father.And the Baron w...
Weekly Contest #341
I go in and clean around her. That’s what I do. I don’t have time to ask her why she’s lying like that. She’s not, uh, uh, physically sick, I know that. She’s on the bed, and she’s like this, like this. She’s lying on the bed. Can’t get up, I guess. I don’t know. I talk to her, because I’m not rude. I know I’m not getting any kind of tip from her, but nobody gets tips here, so that’s fine. I ask her how her day is even though I know she hasn’t gotten out of bed. Does she eat? I don’t know. You think I’m going to ask her if she eats? How is t...
Weekly Contest #340
When they would wake in the night, I’d take them to Hunter Falls. A car ride up the hill and down the hill and around that road that goes and goes and doesn’t know when to end. Their eyes would be open and they’d be chanting in unison. I thought twins doing things like that was made up, but no. From the time they first spoke, they spoke together. As one. Not all the time, but whenever they wanted to adjust the dynamics. I was their mother, but I was one. They were two. I would drive up to the old factory where there used to be manufacturing ...
Weekly Contest #339
I didn’t have anything to do, but watch the snake. We were not supposed to go out, but there was over a foot of snow on the ground. No one was going anywhere. The man pushing the snow blower outside my window had a mask on. I yelled something to Steve about wearing a mask outside, and he yelled back that it’s better to be safe than sorry. Steve would die of an embolism at the age of seventy-four. By then, I’ll have already been gone for two years. My death will be peaceful. It will happen on a Friday night. How exciting. Today is a Sunday. W...
Weekly Contest #338
He brought a copy of A Winter’s Tale. It was July 18th and, in the dead of night, it was still close to eighty-five degrees. When the central air in his apartment broke, his landlord told him it would take two to three days to fix. Being almost eighty-five himself, Ronald Dill might not have made it that long with the heat and, as they say in New England, the humidity. His landlord being a nice woman named Lisa who was very fond of her only tenant, she decided that she would put him up in a hotel across town until the issue was resolved. He ...
Weekly Contest #337
CW: Physical violence, gore or abuse, prostitution I thought I’d find him near the Corkscrew. A pair of overalls and a t-shirt that showed some of my waist. A five o’clock shadow that was going on six. A thin gold chain around my neck. The guy who dropped me off shaved ten bucks off my fee to supply the ride. He was a regular, but he always broke my rule about cigarettes before a session. I let him off the hook, because he told me his wife was dying. I didn’t ask what she was dying of, but I hope it wasn’t lung cancer. He asked me as I was g...
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