Stories | 100Words

Embroidery

By Thaisa Frank
Because I couldn’t find you, I embroidered little houses and visited each one. Some houses floated, tugging on their threads.

Shrinking

By Barbara Diggs
Nia didn’t mind at first. Being at her kids’ eye-level made life easier. Their odd stories and complaints became miraculously comprehensible.

Uncle John Isn’t Really My Uncle

By Leslie Walker Trahan
He’s just a man who works at the candy company. When he visits, he brings me and Mom bags of malformed candies, the ones that weren’t good enough to package.

Fading

By Sarita Sidhu
My parents are fading. As did theirs. My father’s unyielding certitude has been momentarily displaced by bewilderment, betraying a loss of relevance in a new world order.

Honey

By Bailey Bridgewater
There are bees trapped into the walls of an abandoned home. There are ghosts trapped in the attic, swaying to their hum.

A Tiger on the Rue du Bac

By Elizabeth Kuelbs
Savannah sneaks out of the hotel while her dad and Veronica rest up for more museums of naked cherubs and armless statues.

All White Male Authors Look Alike

By Ran Walker
She bought him a book by John Barth as a birthday gift. “You like him, don’t you?” she asked.

Child Play

By Kendall Brunson
His daughters ran from the back of the yard screaming “Snake! Snake!” The poisonous water moccasin slithered after his children, but his wife was the first to react.

The Uncle

By Ron Hartley
I used to love to linger and breathe in the scent of our cluttered garage, and of dad’s old pick-up always parked there.

Building the Butternut

By Alisa Golden
It didn't seem right, but we set the clocks and got the children up at midnight to go out and yell at the squash.

“Exchange”

By M.J.Iuppa
In 1969, I became an exchange student. I left home to spend the summer with my girlfriend’s family.

Temporary Kin

By Tony Press
We soon realized we were both 15, but Freddy looked much older. He was taller, broader, even had the beginning of a mustache.

Things You Can Take

By Corey Miller
A name. A message. Nobody’s shit. A hike. A hit. A beating.

Oh, For a Bee’s Experience of Clovers, and of Noon!

By Faye Brinsmead
The bee boards the crowded bus. Pulls out her copy of Emily Dickinson, plunges into its nectar.

Aweful

By Hannah Miet
She hated how easily he slept, his body draped on a diagonal across the bed. She could fit only when she curled herself into a ball.

Asparagus Pee

By Kim Magowan
Two days into the grim, doomed camping trip, Regina called off their wedding.

In Every Girl There Is a Forest

By Jonathan Cardew
In every forest there is a cabin. In every cabin there is a stove. In every stove there is an ash pile.

In This Drought

By Tommy Dean
Before, we blamed things on the rain: canceled parades, flooding and mudslides, flattened hair, postponed races, baseball games, our happiness.