A kind gesture

Sending us this huge bouquet

After grandma passed

We left them in the kitchen

For days, no will to move them

Blooms wilting

Petals drifting

One morning I walked by

Their reek of rot alerted me

I saw a movement

Looked within the sagging stems

A cockroach popped out

I felt my gorge rise

Grabbed a trash bag

Enveloped the mess in plastic

Threw it in the trash

And then cried...

“Well, young lady, are you ready for your test?” The handler said, for the fifth time that day.

“Yes sir,” Esmé said. “I’ve been practicing with a rental dragon all month.”

“Then let’s go,” he said.

As they took off, mom and dad waved nervously. The last four applicants hadn’t done so well.

The dragon looked like he’d been doing this a long time. His scales were pock marked from bumps and ...

“It ain’t no use, Lilly,” Sheriff Pete drawled. “I gotta face the Hunter Gang before they tear this town apart!”

“Oh Sheriff,” Lilly said, tapping a handkerchief on her tear-stained cheek. “It ain’t fair that we can’t be together because of that vampire gang!”

Pete gently nudged the pretty showgirl off his knee, and stood up, as he could see a number of horses arrive out front.

The town Undert...

The barbarians were itching for a fight. Osgood could feel it in his bones.

“Who owns this fine establishment?” One of the men yelled.

“That would be me,” Osgood said, stepping on his footstool to get their attention.

“You?” The one guffawed. “We’ll, little man. I ask for free libations for my men!”

“Free, you say,” Osgood said. “I’m afraid I cannot sustain a business by giving free drinks...

“Alas,” the teacher wailed to her third grade class. “I have broken all my rulers for you ungrateful students!”

Becky, the class genius, coughed and raised a hand. “Mrs. Wells, maybe you shouldn’t get so angry when we’re not behaving.”

“Whatever do you mean!” Mrs Wells howled, holding up the split ruler that she had just whacked on her desk in fury.

*Prompt readers interrupt the writer.*

“The...

Sirens wailed in the distance.

Neighbors mowing their lawns, now burnt shadows on the grass.

Children playing in yards, piles of bone, their ashes blowing in the wind.

Birds dropped from the sky in soft whispering plops.

Houses flattened. Barbecue grills tossed aside like twigs. Swimming pools boiled, evaporated.

One lone family, in the basement when the bombs hit, huddled together, radi...

My parents had a guest

This funny old lady who they mowed lawns for

And she asked me when introduced

What my sign was.

I didn’t know.

She asked me my birthdate.

October, I said.

You’re a Libra! She cried, delighted.

Libras are creative and artistic.

Which was so great because at 9

I knew I wanted to be an artist.

So this confirmed it for me.

I had a purpose.

A vision of what I could be.

Th...

I couldn’t bear to be sad with grandma. She always hated garish sentiment.

But these were her last hours and I needed her to know what she had meant to me.

As I sat with her, holding her hand, eyes barely open, the sheet over her chest still moving, I took the old book out of my purse and held it up to her.

The book she had read to me over and over when I was a child. “The Dragon and His Blue...

“Ever wonder why roses have thorns?”

Not this guy again, the gardener thought. The old woman stood up from her deadheading. It was tiring work but gave her something to do at the assisted living home.

“Roses don’t actually have thorns,” Emma said, clips snipping off dead flowers. “They’re called prickles. And they have evolved them to keep herbivores from eating them. Because they don’t want t...

I was fine yesterday. Today I’m sweating and shivering and I have a fever and can’t keep a darn thing down. I’m just beside myself.

“It’s ok, Nick,” my wife says, getting her uniform on. “I’ll get the presents delivered. You rest up.”

What would I do without Mrs. Claus?

She kisses my forehead, grabs the keys to the sleigh, and goes out into the cold night....