Book, Possessed My partner Mickey and I were on our regular beat when we got called to a bakery around mid-morning. It was the one on 5th with the croissants the size of your head. We arrived to find a book lying on the ground and a small crowd around it like it was a…
Tag: Funny
T(ea)
T(ea) I’ll admit, I was only half listening to my daughter. She’d just gotten back from school and was chattering about her day. I was going through the mail. “Tea,” I heard her say. I looked at my watch. “Sure, I guess. You going to make it?” “You are.” “Fine. Don’t take that tone, though.”…
A Key Problem
A Key Problem “Why?” A shouted. “Nah, Y is up there,” said A’s neighbor, who was always a smart-S. The writer using the typewriter was writing a fantasy story. “Abracadabra!” they heard him murmur. A groaned as he got hit on the head five times in quick succession. “Quiet,” Z grumbled from just below. “I…
Death Mill
Death Mill “It roars through, same time every afternoon, on these metal rails. No one knows from where or to where.” “They’ve got to lead somewhere. You could follow them.” “I tried! Walked for, like, an hour. Still going. What’s important, though, it’s great for milling wheat. You put the wheat all along the rails…
The Universe and I
This story is a response to the Muse on Monday writing prompt from January 6, 2025. The Universe and I It was January 1, 2025, and I decided I was going to make a New Years resolution. I hadn’t done that in a while but here it was a new year, and I wanted to…
The Ritual
The Ritual Lantern light glinted on stainless steel as the robed figures entered the kitchen. These figures had been my female relatives earlier that day, but now they were keepers of sacred knowledge. “Flour,” I began. “3 cups,” they chanted. I added it to the bowl. “Eggs.” “Four.” I recited the ingredients my mother had…
G is for Prank
G is for Prank I opened the shed and saw ropes hanging from my bike. Garlic. Of course. Tabitha started it by putting an artichoke on my homeroom chair. My revenge was a liquidly-ripe banana in her pencil case. She stuffed cotton candy in my gym shoes a week later. After that, the pattern was…
The Greens Shall Inherit the Earth
I swear that I didn’t intend to write on a similar theme as my last post: The Birth of Dandelions, written by Kazakhstani writer Anel Fuller. But when you sit down to write and a story pops out, that’s what you get. The Greens Shall Inherit the Earth We were assigned four plots, so we…
Letter Hats
Letter Hats Culture is unusual. People in other countries might look the same, but they do things you wouldn’t expect. Like a stop sign I saw with ARRET on it, but with a little hat on the “e”. I asked Camden, the neighborhood Google. “History,” he said. “They started dropping the “s” from words and…
The Neighbor We Love to Hate
The Neighbor We Love to Hate The two women watched the old man lounging in his front yard amid heaps of dirty snow. “Why won’t he leave?” one said. “He’s hurting property values.” “Right? Do you know he destroyed all my flowers last night?” “You sure?” “Who else would it be?” “He should retire to…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 