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Category Archive
Dinner at Emil’s
April 15, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Food, novels, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Competition, Food, Fraud, Status | by davidbdale | 10 comments
Emil is a genius. What he does with food is more like alchemy than cooking. The dishes that come out of his kitchen might not be food any more. Read the rest of this entry »
My Resignation
April 14, 2007 in 299 Words, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, novels, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Dropout, Monologue, Quit, Rhetoric, Speech | by davidbdale | 10 comments
Utterly befuddled by recent developments, incapable of crafting a simple apology that satisfies anyone, I hereby resign. I hereby resign, effective retroactively, as far back as the rules will bend without breaking. Read the rest of this entry »
Heart of Wax
March 28, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, novels, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, writers, Writing | Tags: Bribe, Brother, Crime, Father, Shame, Sister | by davidbdale | 7 comments
He wanders past the boarded-up businesses in town with a look of guilty surprise, as if he’d been tapped on the shoulder while spying on something he shouldn’t have seen, startled behind binoculars, and never bounced back from the shock. Read the rest of this entry »
Flying with the Fishes
March 18, 2007 in 299 Words, Autism, Disability, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literature, novels, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Disability, Family, Grief, Heartbreak, Monologue, Tragedy, Trauma | by davidbdale | 6 comments
Hello, we’re the Fishes. Welcome to our ambivalent home. Ha. One of our little jokes, meant to make you more comfortable. Okay. Let’s start in Michael’s room. Read the rest of this entry »
Trolley Problems
March 15, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literature, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: language, Logic, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Romance | by davidbdale | 4 comments
A runaway trolley is racing downhill. If I hurry to the switch, I can divert the trolley to another track, that is, if I understand switches. Sunlight crinkles on the storefront windows, Read the rest of this entry »
The Colonel’s Acres
March 13, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, novels, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Eye Contact, Father, Loss, Love, Romance, Son, Wife | by davidbdale | 10 comments
Dear B—
You can’t imagine how a woman of substance has changed this house and all your boys, me included. Billy brought her, thinking she was his, but they’ve each found reasons to love her, features of you, I think, that they vaguely remember. Read the rest of this entry »
Short Superman
March 7, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, novels, reading, Short stories, Stories, Superman, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Comic, Hero, Humor | by davidbdale | 7 comments
Short Superman doesn’t know his own strength. He stands in the mirror stretching himself to his full height and wonders why his cape hangs limp across his shoulders. It should billow behind him. Read the rest of this entry »
A Very Good Picture
February 24, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literature, novels, Poetry, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Illicit, Secret, Yearning | by davidbdale | 9 comments
She’s staying at the only good hotel in town, a place I’ve never been, and giving a paper, whatever that means, and wants to see me while she’s here. We’ve never met, but I know things about her I would never ask anyone else. Read the rest of this entry »
Short for Family
February 21, 2007 in 299 Words, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literature, novels, Poetry, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Death, Family, Father, Loss, Son, Tragedy, Youth | by davidbdale | 7 comments
This car is too big for our abbreviated family. Dad drives and I sit in the back where he can see me, as if I would budge, just the two of us since the accident that cut us in half. Beside him is empty. Beside me too. Read the rest of this entry »
Red Water
February 20, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literature, novels, Poetry, reading, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Aid, Politics | by davidbdale | 7 comments
He shows his hands as bidden. Across each palm, and flecking the edges also of his bare soles, doily patterns of lesion and wart, the arsenic array. His hands outstretched toward the inspector, palms up, thumbs east and west, Read the rest of this entry »
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