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Month's Featured Stories... |
Repaid
Debts by Sandra Seamans. Short, dark and
vicious. Sort of like my first girlfriend -- but I digress.
Do you remember the tale of Androcles and the lion? Well, here is
a slightly different take on it.
"What we done to
Pete, don't matter none. A man's got a right to make a livin' how he
chooses," said Tom as he threw the last shovel full of dirt onto
the make-shift grave.
"I'm just sayin' it ain't right to be killin' a man,"
replied Ted.
"Don't matter now. He's dead and underground."
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Worship
the Cat by Kimberly Brown. Cats always
act like they think they should be worshipped. But that's
ridiculous, right? RIGHT? Then again...
A
sense of unreality washed over her when they stepped from the ordinary
ranch-style house into a medieval room from another world. White
candles flickered from sconces on the walls. Lorraine's eyes were
drawn to the centerpiece of the room, where two tall white tapers
flanked a structure that looked like an altar. A statue--a large,
pagan-looking thing with the body of a voluptuous woman and the head
of a cat--stood beside the altar.
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Imagination
by John M. Floyd. There are things out there in the darkness of
the night, things with teeth and claws and slavering lips and...
sometimes they're even enough to frighten hardened law enforcement
officers.
"Did you
hear that?" Tom said.
On the other
side of the tent, Ben Rollins's blanketed shape stirred and groaned.
"Hear what?"
"Something
big. A bear, maybe."
Tom Finkley pulled a coat on over his undershirt and sat still,
listening. The moonlight through the tent flap painted a green stripe on
the ground between him and Ben.
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Arapaho
by Gary R. Hoffman. "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of
earth..." Falconry was the sport and pastimes of nobles for
hundreds of years. Could it be put to a less noble purpose?
Norm Riddle raised his leather-gloved hand.
Arapaho, his huge Harris hawk, squatted down, spread his wings,
and launched himself towards the top of a huge white oak tree at the edge of the
field. Arapaho watched
Norm. With just a slight
twist of his wrist, the bird was sailing back towards Norm.
Norm was not his master. He
was an “assistant” to the bird.
The hawk was never tamed. He
simply stuck around for the food Norm provided him.
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The
Last of Artie by Che Gilson. They say
(whoever "they" are) that each of us has a double somewhere on
the earth. What happens when you FIND that double, though, and their
life is so very, very different from your own?
It was just my luck I looked exactly like Artie Pennington. It was my even better luck that we met.
U.C.L.A. campus, gold and green and sprawling in the sunshine, had accepted me as a scholarship student. I meant to do right by it too. Alpha Theta Pi was looking for a few good men. It was Rush Week, so what the hell.
The Alpha’s were like clones, each one cut out of an Abercrombie
& Fitch catalogue. But they liked a hardluck story, and I had one for them.
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Mercy
Date by Kathleen Strasser. Have
you ever come away from a date some friend has set up for you, feeling
absolutely "set up"? Some guys don't know how to hear the
word "No", do they?
Lunch was not going well. Carol stared down at her half eaten taco. She
didn’t want discuss the Superbowl party and the behavior of Beth’s
brother.
“How was I to know Justin would
be such an ass? I told him to call and apologize,” said Beth.
“That you would appreciate that.”
“He did.” Carol
had quit counting after the tenth message on her machine.
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Bear
Illegal by B. J. Bourg. Camping
trips are supposed to be fun outings for everyone. Of course, there
are always those annoying pests to put up with: ants, bees, chiggers,
bears...
Rebecca Simms sat up in the dark. There it was
again! She slid out of her sleeping bag and eased to her feet. She
paused to listen. Curry's breath was slow and steady--he hadn't heard
the noise. She peered through the skylight at the top of the tent. The
faint glow from the fading fire cast shadows about the campsite and made
it difficult to distinguish one object from another. Something moved at
the edge of the tree line. It was a dark, looming figure that swayed as
it moved along the outer edges of the light.
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The Box
by Tonya Dunsmore. All the wonderful inventions we now enjoy are the
results of someone's curiosity. Electric power, computers, automated
telemarketing callers. But sometimes curiosity and envy together can
drive a person to do things they just KNOW they shouldn't do!
“Bella, you just can’t play with the box.
It’s forbidden and that’s that. It’s always been forbidden,”
Mother said. She led Bella downstairs and out into the garden for tea,
and the matter was dropped. Anytime the girls were in their mother’s
rooms after that, Bella noticed the closet door was kept carefully
locked. If Bella asked about the box, as she did often while growing up,
all her mother would say was, “No, Bella, the box is forbidden.”
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Prey
by Jonette Stabbert. Sweet little old ladies are such dears, with
their pampered little lapdogs. But a whole community full of sweet
little old ladies with their pampered little lapdogs would be... well,
just murder to contend with!
Mrs. Peabody carried her muddy little dog into the
house and shut the door. She was fuming. Her hands shook so badly, she
could barely make the tea. That Caesar woman and her confounded monster,
Brutus! Something would have to be done. They couldn’t continue to
make everyone’s life a misery. Mrs. Peabody was so upset, that despite
it being April, she went to the cupboard and poured out a thimbleful of
the special brandy reserved for Christmastime guests. Adding it to her
tea, she swiftly downed the potent liquid and felt the warmth spread
throughout her body.
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Tiger by
the Tail by Lucille Perkins Robinson. Did you
hear the one about the blonde who escaped from... never mind, you've heard
it! Blondes have more fun, they say, but they also say blondes are
dumb. I'm not sure how much of either statement is true.
I slipped the picks out of my pocket.
As I put the gloves on, I glanced around.
The moon hid behind a dark cloud and only a few stars studded the night
sky. No close neighbors meant
smaller chance of being seen in the back of Susan's home.
No lights were on inside the huge plantation-style house, so
evidently Susan
was gone as anticipated. I
had to do this job by feel mostly and it was slow, but I eventually chose the
right picks. I grasped the tension
tool in my left hand and the rake pick in my right and began working on the
lock.
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Random Acts of Crime Contest Winners!
Here are Kimberly Brown and Chelle Martin's two
prize-winning entries from the Random Acts of Crime contest. I know
you'll enjoy them.
A
Little Peace and Quiet by Kimberly Brown
The Reverend Mickey Ivester
stood over the stranger's lifeless body. His ears rang from the shots
that had echoed through the parking garage.
Mickey trembled and the gun
tumbled from his hand. He fell on his knees to the cold concrete. He'd
never even fired a gun, much less killed anyone. "Let the dead bury
the dead," he muttered, as he turned to hold his friend Charlie's
clammy hand.
Chick
Pea by Chelle Martin
Bill Andrews, legal
representative for the Duh! Beer Company, vigorously shook hands with
Doyle “Bubba” McKenna, current mayor of Chick Pea, Iowa, who was
running for reelection. “Today is your lucky day, Mayor McKenna,” Andrews said.
“This here is Charles Duhkovic, Vice President of Corporate
Development for Duh! Beer. We’d like to put Chick Pea, Iowa on the map by legally
changing its name to Duh!. And
we’d like to give each of your 400 citizens $5,000 cash as a reward
for doing so.”
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