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An Offering
October 12, 2009 in 299 Words, Child, Confession, Crime, Death, Dialogue, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Murder, novels, Parent, Religion, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Violence, Writing | Tags: Bible, Child, Crime, Dialogue, Murder, Parent, Play, Religion, Sacrifice, Son, Violence | by davidbdale | 7 comments
—Nevertheless you did kill him?
—I was present at his death.
—Present with a knife.
—Mine was not the only hand on that knife.
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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 »
Separate Trains
September 6, 2009 in 299 Words, Destiny, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Love, Marriage, Separation, Short stories, Travel, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Appearance, Destiny, Loss, Love, Marriage, Panic, Separation | by davidbdale | 9 comments
They looked married. In what they took for granted, the other riders saw they had been together forever. He read the map of the system posted by the door, tilting his head to follow the lines, and kept his balance with a hand on the pole. Read the rest of this entry »
Clarity
August 27, 2009 in 299 Words, Business, Fiction, Flash Fiction, language, Mind, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Computers, Madness, Mathematics, Obsession, Patterns, Reason | by davidbdale | 13 comments
The Computative Assistant to the Acting Vice-Director of Apportionment Compliance for the local subdistrict stopped counting. For an hour he did nothing but stare at his screen and its pattern of numbers that veiled the white certainty beyond. Read the rest of this entry »
Borrowed Luggage
August 17, 2009 in 299 Words, Escape, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Immigrant, Refugee, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Culture, Danger, Family, Poverty, Safety, Shame, Yearning | by davidbdale | 4 comments
A simple man named Abraham Kosofsky watched his tiny town of Berezovka grow tinier every day. Fannie, he asked his wife, What will become of us when all our neighbors are carried away by this coughing fit and buried? Read the rest of this entry »
Trade Rumors
August 1, 2009 in 299 Words, Childhood, Dialogue, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Nuclear Family, Short stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Baseball, Business, Child, Dialogue, Family, Father, Son, Truth | by davidbdale | 7 comments
—Dad, are you trying to trade me?
—What would make you say that?
—Mister Moyer said you offered me for his daughter.
—Not just his daughter, son. That was a package deal.
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The Antidote
July 22, 2009 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Health, Medicine, Science Fiction, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Epidemic, Illness, Science Fiction | by davidbdale | 9 comments
Although aspects of the procedure must be painful beyond enduring, I’m not among the noisy many who call it cruelty to harvest an essential medicinal from its only source, but I admit I don’t envy the donor. Read the rest of this entry »
The Yellow Pages
June 19, 2009 in 299 Words, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Marriage, Nuclear Family, Relationships, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Child, Family, Parent, Regret, Separation | by davidbdale | 7 comments
Had they been a less practical couple, my parents might have had children by accident. Instead, one night, before I was born, at the wobbly table in the breakfast nook, Dad drew a line down a page of yellow paper Read the rest of this entry »
Terrorist’s Wife
June 13, 2009 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Love, Marriage, Stories, Terrorism, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Beauty, Bed, Innocence, Love, Marriage, Murder, Politics, Terror | by davidbdale | 6 comments
Something so good and pure at the core of a man like my husband hardens to a bullet in the forge of an inhuman world. He might laugh at me for saying so. Read the rest of this entry »
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