100-Word Stories

Scooge heard about a rare high-end Nissan and found a place to sell and customize a tricked-out model for $80K.

Next month, horsepower, luxury! But where to drive? SoCal was crowded, the freeways merciless. But he had to open it up!

Cranked it on the Pasadena Freeway. Until getting stuck behind a blue Porsche Boxster doing 85. It wouldn’t speed up or move, so Scooge illegally screamed over into the HOV lane, punched it and while passing, looked at his boss and startup owner staring back!

While accelerating to 170 mph, he pondered the need to clean out his desk…

1 Comment

Just Not The Right Time, by David Minor

9/5/2025

“Abandon ship, repeat, abandon ship!”

Bertie could only watch as people raced around the riverboat casino. The folks at his table

left their seats and headed for the exits. He knew that he had had the winning hand and that

nothing could beat his cards. He turned over his king and queen of hearts. Along with the jack,

ace, and ten of hearts on the table, he would have had a royal flush!

Bertie shook his head, drank his shot of bourbon, got up from the table with a sigh, and joined

his fellow gamblers in abandoning The Lucky Lady.

2 Comments

The Grieving Process, by Tony Covatta

9/5/2025

Bad news piled up but Nick was coping. The caregiver scheduled for Nick’s terminally ill wife phoned. Sick, she couldn’t work. Scrambling, he found a replacement. He needed to go to his cousin’s for visitation for her only son, dead in a car crash just the day before.
He meandered amid friends and relatives, sampled scraps of the food kindly neighbors furnished.
Time to go. Nick hugged his cousin tight, then held her at arm’s length. Mistakenly, he gazed deep into her eyes.
Suddenly saw there what he knew he’d feel when his wife died sometime very soon. Bottomless grief.

1 Comment

Saying Goodbye, by Dominic Langdon

9/5/2025

We held one another on the bed, my hands caressed her bump. The news provided a backing track to our cries. The trickle of tears for our loss, became a river as we began to mourn the moments we had fantasised over; like bringing her home from hospital, introducing her to her Grandparents. All were replaced by a void. How could I be strong for her? The contrails from the nuclear missiles divided up the sky.

“We’ve lost the whole East Coast” the news reporter sobbed.

I shut the curtains, and put on our wedding video.

“Come on, let’s dance”.

1 Comment

Daisy's Dragon, by Tom Baldwin

9/5/2025

4 Comments

Daisy climbed on her dragon’s back and directed him to where the prince was imprisoned. They swooped down, the dragon snorting fire and scattering the witches, and the prince climbed up behind Daisy to fly home.

At last the king’s castle lay below them. They landed and Daisy and the prince dismounted, to the joy of the king…

‘Daisy! You’re daydreaming yet again and haven’t listened a word all lesson,’ said Miss Blackwell.

Daisy couldn’t wait to go home and write down her latest story. And now she had a name for the wickedest witch – Mistress Blackwell.

4 Comments

The Love I feel for You, by Jacqui Wiley

9/5/2025

The love I feel for you right now is unquestionable. I have introduced many others to my girls. None have hugged so comfortably, being so supportive.

I have travelled near and far before this, to no avail. Recommendations whispered behind closed doors have never fulfilled their needs, no matter what money exchanged hands. I have been hurt, stabbed. My girls have suffered, flattened or pushed out.

On this occasion I feel content, happy, in myself. The girls certainly have perked up after years of feeling low. Money did change hands but you can't expect to get a brassiere for nothing.

3 Comments

The Change of Season, by Sivan Pillai

9/5/2025

I am sitting on the balcony. The fast-moving dark clouds remind me that the rainy season is at hand.
I remember accompanying my father and bullocks to the field in the village. When the plough upturned the soil, the trailing birds gulped the exposed worms.
Flocks of birds hurry home, making occasional sounds. A peacock perched on the opposite terrace takes off when the lightning and thunder become frequent. Living alone, nobody asks me to get inside.
There is a blinding lightning and a boom.
My last memory is lying in my mother's lap with her hands caressing my head.

3 Comments

Flapper-Gasted, by Krystyna Fedosejevs

9/5/2025

Guests gathered in a room decorated with Roaring 20s nostalgia.

“Here’s to Ethel!” the host raised his wineglass. Others followed.

“She would’ve been delighted,” nodded a woman claiming to be a childhood friend.

Someone ran in.

“It’s Sally, Ethel’s sister,” a woman screamed.

“They look remarkably alike,” responded her husband.

“No, I’m Ethel,” the latecomer said, swinging her fringed flapper-dress hemline.

“Can’t be. You said your sister Ethel left us for good,” another onlooker blurted.

“Didn’t mean she, rather I, died.”

Few smiles surfaced from the sea of blurred confusion.

Ethel continued: “You all missed me? Just wanted to know.”

3 Comments

Echoes of Loss, by Louisa Prince

9/5/2025

The salt-kissed breeze tousles my hair as I venture onto the creaking pier. I gaze at the orange sunset, recalling the last time I stood here, engulfed in the roar of an engine and the acrid scent of smoke.

Memories flood back; dancing on waves, swaying with the boat’s motion until chaos erupted. I remember hitting the water hard. The copper tang of blood mingled with curses and sounds beyond the darkness. My legs, slashed and heavy, struggle against the current.

I jolt at a kookaburra's call and watch the sun fade, knowing it's time to move on.

1 Comment

Men Without Women, by Don Tassone

9/5/2025

10 Comments

Historically, there were always slightly more males born than females. Until the late 21st century when, for reasons unknown, male births began to greatly exceed female births.

This trend continued. By the 22nd century, two males were born for every female. By the 23rd century, four out of five people on the planet were male.

The resulting changes in society were profound. Most notably, the world became more belligerent and less empathetic.

By the 24th century, women were gone, and every nation was at war. The fighting finally stopped when the last man on Earth died in a cave.

10 Comments

Don't Yoke Around, by Julie Turland

9/5/2025

Snuffling, I inhale the putrid stink of puke. Ferocious drumming pulsates in my head. A quick glance shows my figure-hugging dress is now like an old rag. Splattered with sicked-up curry and dark blotches from what might be cheap plonk.

Staggering to my feet, unsure of where I am. Psychedelic spirals decorate the walls, while countless bottles litter the floor.

A strange guy stops me from falling while thrusting a half-filled glass under my nose, with a yellow eye floating on the top.

“How about a nice raw egg to treat your hangover?”

Stomach lurching, I’m never getting drunk again.

1 Comment

Thief, by Sue Clayton

9/5/2025

Maggie loves her coat. It’s thick and warm, although greyer now than its original white.

She senses that somebody wants to steal her coat, to take away her warmth and give it to others.

The thief is creeping up on her. She tries to hide in a dark corner. She won’t let him remove it without a fight, kicking and lashing out with all she’s got, but she knows she’s fighting a losing battle.

“She’s a feisty one,” he wipes away sweat as he drags Maggie out from the holding pen, shears at the ready.

2 Comments

Yosemite, by Jill Potter

9/5/2025

They discovered my body under a large oak tree about 50 feet from a creek in a remote part of the park. It was covered with leaves but a breeze had exposed my left hand and part of my forearm. I was aware that darkness had come twice so 3 days must have passed.
I watched the activity below without emotion.
So many people. So much activity.
When they took the body away, it was quiet again so I stayed for a while. Then I moved through the trees and across the creek to the other side of the park.

1 Comment

You Are What You Eat, by Gordon Lawrie

9/5/2025

An assiduous vocabularist, Alexander had a passion for uncustomary or freakish terms utilised only infrequently in standard parlance. Each day, he shared idioms and usages with which those around him were seldom acquainted.

Unexpectedly and notwithstanding, Alexander had companions: as well as by his diminutive, they’d address him as ‘star’ and other accolades. Each year, they celebrated his birthday with a large dictionary-shaped gateau, inscribed with his moniker and yet another epithet.

This year, his seventieth, Alexander’s cake was topped with a chocolate Golden Gate Bridge. The icing said:

“LEX – ICON – THE – ALLOTTED – SPAN!!”

"Thanks, I’m supremely gruntled,” he grinned.

2 Comments

Coup Recount, by Mary K. Curran

9/5/2025

After a night of magical ceremonies and prayers, the Elders blessed Nakoma and the select group of empowered warriors, bestowed important missions and sent them off.

She stood staring hard at the newly installed fifth face as tourists photographed the 60-foot granite heads of old white men carved on Rushmore, a sacred mountain once called Six Grandfathers.

The crowd began screaming in horror as rocks fell from the figure on the far right and cheered when the ugly smirking face tumbled down the mountainside.

There were more tasks ahead. Nakoma got in her red Mustang and headed east toward D.C.

2 Comments

Cold Case, by Hayley Igarashi Thomas

2/5/2025

7 Comments

Editor's Choice

Detective Toyo doesn’t relish the sight of old ladies in handcuffs, especially old ladies who cut off his sandwich crusts as recently as Tuesday. But Detective Toyo, age 7, badge plastic, answers to the law, not his stomach.

“Please open your freezer.”

“Oh, Toyo, Mr. Overhill is in there,” says Mrs. Overhill, age 81, murder suspect.

“Yes, I overheard you telling mom.”

The freezer opens, revealing a cat, age 19, frozen.

“That’s not your husband.”

“Ah.” Mrs. Overhill winces. “The cat and my husband have the same name.”

Detective Toyo, who has now looked upon the face of death, sighs.

7 Comments

The Surgeon's Hand, by Guy Fletcher

2/5/2025

4 Comments

I liked this, too – Editor

"Let me put those items in the bag for you," said the check-out girl with a look of pity.
"It's come to this," stated the ex-surgeon to himself.

He stared at his shaking hand, remembering the day he was diagnosed with Parkinson's although he knew before.

Instantly he descended from a god to a patient, breaking his heart.
He had joined the ranks of the old limping along with walking sticks, every day the same people in the village.

That night he dreamt he was a surgeon again. The most beautiful dreams are the worst nightmares.

4 Comments

A Lover's Folly, by Adil Alam

2/5/2025

5 Comments

He approached her window; she retreated inside. He confessed his love; she bluntly denied.

"Marry me! I'll keep you happy till the end of days!"

"Yes," she'd say. "Only when hell freezes over."

He returned every day until a hundred moons had passed. "Surely a man so persistent will love me as I deserve..." Her heart relented and she decided to accept him.

The next day, expecting his voice at the break of dawn ("I am here, my dear," would be her rooster call), she glanced outside. Finding an empty street, she closed her window and went back to sleep.

5 Comments

Distant, by John O’Keefe

2/5/2025

Every time I change jobs most of the guys at the new place fall in love with me. I look at least ten years younger than my age, and have a slender yet curvy figure.
The same thing happened when I joined my current company, except for one guy named Fred who couldn’t have been more aloof if he tried.

Finally using my subtle way of inquiry I confronted him, what was that he found so objectionable. Fred admitted he also lusted after me, but for him it was a loyalty issue. He was a happily unmarried man.

3 Comments

Are Diamonds Forever? by Graeme Copland

2/5/2025

“So, what did you say?”

“I said yes, obviously.” Karen had a huge smile on her face.

“Wow. I didn’t think he would ever ask.” Susan was clearly surprised. “How long has it been?”

“Over two years.”

“Let me see it again.”

Karen held up her hand and Susan studied the ring.

“That is a huge diamond. What are you going to do with it?”

“Sell it. Both the wedding and engagement rings.”

“Well, after two years of cheating, he finally asks for a divorce. Hope you get a good settlement.”

“Oh, I intend to.” said Karen. And smiled again.

3 Comments

Beta Reader, by Robert Martin

2/5/2025

A manuscript page lay on the floor of the saloon, stinking of beer and fuzzy with dust. It didn’t stop Reader from picking it up. His forehead creased into critical lines.

“Which one of you is Samuel Clemens?” he growled.

A slight man with a big mustache ventured, “I’m Clemens”.

“Are you writing this for English majors in some distant future, or do you want people to read it?”

“For people to read it of course”.

“Then you’d better change this character’s name from Thecky Batcher to Becky Thatcher.”

“That’s capital! So...memorable! What’s your name, stranger?”

“Reader, just Reader”.

3 Comments

Burning, by Kingston Marsch

2/5/2025

Seven long, crippling years in that gulag of a boarding school, harried by stern masters and sadistic bullies.
For decades I burned for incendiary vengeance on that cruel institution. Until that night I broke in, armed with matches and petrol.
I hesitated: a doubt, a question. Isn't it too late for revenge? Surely there's a more noble answer?
I turned and walked away.
But, temptation! Memories of childhood bonfires; the hot thrill of the lit match ...
The burns eventually healed and, I suppose, I will get used to prison, a mature incarceration.
Those flames still burn my dreams.

2 Comments

Boxed In, by Eric Delong

2/5/2025

The instructor announced: “Today’s team building exercise is - Thinking Outside the Box”.

He held up a wire triangle. “Find a new use for the coat hanger.”

The class split up into teams of four and commenced brainstorming. After twenty minutes, each team reported.

“You could bend it to hold a piece of bread for a toaster,” Team A suggested.

“Very good.”

Team B offered: “Paint stirrer.”

Team C: “A fundraiser. You could go door to door and ask for excess hangers and sell them to dry cleaners.”

“Not acceptable.”

Team C objected. “Isn’t the exercise 'Thinking Outside the Box?'”

3 Comments

Wish, by S. Anand

2/5/2025