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Category Archive
First Will and Testament
July 15, 2010 in 299 Words, Adoption, Child, Childhood, Death, Destiny, Family, Fiction, Haunting, Health, Life, Love, Medicine, Nuclear Family, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Bequest, inheritance, medicine, will | by davidbdale | 27 comments
Some of my stuff I want to keep after I’m dead, but Ariel can pick out three things from my toy-box, not three of the same things, like not three ponies, or not even two insects, but a pony and an insect and a piece of furniture would be good, and she can ride my bike when she’s big enough. Read the rest of this entry »
Under the Bed
October 2, 2009 in 299 Words, Child, Childhood, Danger, Escape, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Life, Parent, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, writers | Tags: Child, Danger, Family, Fear, Magic, Mother, Parent, Sex, Yearning | by davidbdale | 14 comments
I had no magic as a child. I would have used it if I had, to stop the Boots from kicking me where I hid. Flat against the bedroom floor with the floor of the sky just inches above my nose, I knew no safer, more anonymous place to be, Read the rest of this entry »
Salt Toast
September 26, 2009 in 299 Words, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Life, Love, Marriage, novels, Parent, Short stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Child, Daughter, Family, Father, Love, Marriage | by davidbdale | 12 comments
In photos of my daughter’s wedding, I look thinner than I was and not at all as if I wanted to strangle the groom. There stands Sheila, radiant as always against a bank of pallbearer suits. Read the rest of this entry »
Life Plus a Day
March 29, 2009 in 299 Words, Business, Confession, Crime, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Justice, Life, Monologue, novels, Prison, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Crime, Guilt, Irony, Justice, Philosophy, Prison, Theft | by davidbdale | 13 comments
I stole a brick from my neighbor’s house. With ease he had me convicted of stealing the whole thing, all three stories and the land it gouged, and rightly. We understand there is no difference. Read the rest of this entry »
Breaking Camp
August 7, 2008 in 299 Words, Escape, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Fugitive, Life, Literature, novels, Separation, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | by davidbdale | 5 comments
We haven’t always envied clerks and stockers at the Big Box store. Now we chat with Carl in appliances or listen to Edith at register 6 and we dream of following them home for a hot dog dinner and a night with the TV. A night in the family room. A porch. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s for You
May 22, 2008 in 299 Words, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, How-To, Life, Short stories, Technology, Very Short Novels | Tags: Dystopia, Eerie, Mother, Pain, Technology, Threat | by davidbdale | 6 comments
I picked up the phone and Mom was on the line. Mom! Dear Mom! On the phone! Well! What do you know! I heard the fake smile in her voice. She hadn’t dialed and I hadn’t dialed. Our phones had both rung and we had both answered: the network was trying something new. Read the rest of this entry »
Overpromised Heart
April 20, 2008 in 299 Words, Baby, Childhood, Entertainment, Escape, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Life, Literature, Love, novels, Nuclear Family, Poetry, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Baby, Daughter, Destiny, Embrace, Fear, Mother, Parent, Regret, Separation, Wife | by davidbdale | 5 comments
I promised my daughter my heart, forgetting it wasn’t mine. You were there, fat with her, already weary of the burden and beautiful, intolerably beautiful. You made demands: a hairbrush, a mirror, not that hairbrush, ice yes but not ice chips, a delivery date— Read the rest of this entry »
Church of the Two Thieves
April 14, 2008 in 299 Words, Art, Business, Childhood, Church, Entertainment, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Life, Religion, Short stories, Society, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Children, Church, Faith, Religion | by davidbdale | 9 comments
Here we let the children tell whatever stories serve their needs. We were surprised, though, when they started a church. We had thought, naively it seems, there were enough religions, but they were all founded on faith and suddenly, empty chapels are easy to come by. Read the rest of this entry »
White Cross
April 10, 2008 in 299 Words, Death, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Health, Life, Short stories, Stories, Survivor, Very Short Novels, Violence, Writing | Tags: Car, Death, Drinking, Grave, Loss, Memento, Mystery | by davidbdale | 7 comments
This godforsaken gravel shoulder is as good a place—as bad a place—as any to have made your peace with life and dying. Still, you probably objected. Not here, you said, by which you meant, Not yet. Read the rest of this entry »
The Rope Climber
April 5, 2008 in 299 Words, Childhood, Death, Escape, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Life, Literature, Memory, Religion, Runaway, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Violence, Writing | Tags: Boy, Childhood, Death, Escape, Grief, Guilt, Loss, Mystery | by davidbdale | 4 comments
Summer camp for boys had been a nightmare of fellowship and other itchy rashes. For weeks, he had tried to find somebody he could like or a hiding place, but they had pestered him with bows and arrows, canoes and climbing ropes. The ropes he liked. Read the rest of this entry »
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