First week of December. The tree and decorations had been put up the day after Thanksgiving and now it was time for card sending. Penny sits cross legged on the floor of her bedroom with the boxes of Christmas cards that she purchased last year the day after Christmas at about seventy five percent off. There are pens of different colored ink, stickers, and stamps. A lap desk she found at a garage sale offers her a firm wr...

Expiration Date Month four and I’m still in this same chair trying to write stories, but I can’t wrap my mind around anything else but reality. I can’t even focus to write this, let alone four 700-1000 word stories. I can only think about one thing - sleep, because I can’t get enough of it. School is sucking the life out of me, and work is what gets me by, but when I look around, I don’t even know what I stand for. This i...

I had decided to visit Shanghai with the flurry of movement that invaded the city at that point in time after the war. This decision I took for my interest in the city, but mainly because of my subconscious desire to escape mounting debts, and an unrequited love back home in Marseilles. I took up a low, unglamorous room in the French quarter of the city, hardly surrounded by friends- but at least people living on the same...

Soon Vince's boring life took on new meaning and he looked forward to heading to the old cemetery and fixing it up. He was spotted by a few of his fellow classmates and soon Igor and Dr. Frankenstein were added to the list of nick names that included freak, fag and weirdo that were bestowed on him by his schoolmates, he really didn't care.Now despite his parents approval of this new hobby some teachers voiced their concer...

Ken left Miranda's house around 10:00 am and they both noted that the Harley started on the first try with no problems. She then cleared away the breakfast dishes before she stripped the sheets off the bed and put them in the washing machine with a few other items.Back in the kitchen as she finished the coffee Ken had made her mind replayed the recent events. The bike had started after their brief breakfast stop and they...

Miranda lay there under her silk sheets afraid to open her eyes, she didn't want to face the morning. She silently scolded herself for her weakness of breaking a long-time vow to never, ever, ever slept with any man after the first date, no matter how attractive or desirable they might be. She tentatively reached out her hand to the space next to her, it was empty. She was not surprised, typical male behavior. He got his...

They made their way to the dance floor maneuvering through the throng of people and started dancing. Miranda could tell that Ken was not a dancer, but he could keep a beat and he just mimicked what the other males were doing. She could not stop smiling, she had not enjoyed herself this much in quite awhile. The dance numbers ended and a slow song started. Ken and Miranda stared at each other for an awkward moment and then...

Miranda felt happier than she had in a long time, she was actually going on a date. Oh she had offers of dates from many of her male co-workers, but had refused them all. Some were married, some asked out of pity and the rest came from males that wanted to say they scored with some biker woman . She washed and waxed her bike as it had been awhile since she had been out on it. Then started it to make sure the battery charg...

The kid at her door could not be older than 18, Miranda thought. He looked harmless enough so she opened the door. She wasn't really worried because despite her slender and shapely appearance Miranda was a match for any male twice her size and weight. She had to be as she was a bikers woman. "Hi, and what can I do for you?" she asked. "Is that motorcycle in the garage still for sale?" Miranda smiled. The bike had belonged...

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even belong in here. Lying here, on the stone cold floors in my tiny cell, hearing nothing but thoughts going over and over again made me feel so powerless. Every time I thought about being in here, I have this sorrow feeling begin to swell up inside me. “Come on hurry up! Just do it, they’ll never know it was you.” Carter, my best friend, said with eagerness. I hesitated at first, but what...

My name is Mindy. On this sunny morning, I was standing on the green grass. It was a beautiful May day. I was alone. I had left the house early and I watched as the sun rose in the east. It was casting long shadows. I could smell the aroma of flowers in the air, and the evergreens were gently trembling in a soft breeze from the west. Usually, I would have slept late, as most teenagers do, on a day off from school. I was a...

The setting sun created an eerie twilight in the woods, where only moments before, sounds of war raged. As the golden orange and red clouds stimulated Private Barney Jackson’s soul, he thought it was strange that even on the battlefield, the sunset was something to behold in awe. As the twilight give way into night, he said a small prayer that the war would soon be over and he could go home and watch sunsets from his fron...

I moved in the house I am renting on March 1 of this year. My furniture was all in storage, from when I lost my house two years ago, so I bought an air mattress and a sleeping bag to use until I could get my stuff moved in. This weekend being the end of August, I decided it was finally time to get my mattress. The air mattress was beginning to feel a little too impermanent, and besides, it has developed a leak, which I ca...

I feel sick waiting for him to return. The house is spotless, the dinner in the oven, he is bound to find some fault with me. I try so hard to please him. He once said to me, "Perhaps you try too hard!" He knows I try hard, so why does he delight in being cruel to me?  I hear the front door slam. He`s here. My stomach is churning. I turn from the kitchen sink. "Did you enjoy yourself?" I ask, knowing the answer to my ques...

He was only 9 years old. His world was about to shatter and then be put back together as something completely different. It wasn't his fault, but he would pay, and he would remember the loss and the pain for years to come. His parents had been fighting for years. They had married young and he was the cause. He was a surprise to a young couple just dating, not meaning to be serious. He figured that out years later, but now...