a taste of ‘September’

… get me outta here! …

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He takes the sweeping stairs to the Ehrlich Fiduciary building two by two and dances a Rocky Balboa victory hop, face lifted up to the morning sun, at the summit.

Guilie Castillo Oriard, The Bonaire Feel-Good

 

“My Papa wants to see me? See me? You gotta be kidding. Twenty years ago he said Get out of my life, I don’t want your shadow to cross my face, even after I’m dead and don’t know it.”

Townsend Walker, La Ronde / Sal and Lana

 

There is no such thing as an old, established, Latin American family having a quiet, intimate affair.

Derek Osborne, In Our Lifetime

 

I have to be on my best behavior which is torture because I’m in an irritable Mixed Mood Episode with a short fuse.

Gloria Garfunkel, Saving the Life of the Dead

 

The only actual antiques are locked in glass jewelry cases along a counter, and half that stuff looks faux-distressed. That’s Deonna: antique and faux-distressed.

John Wentworth Chapin, Chartreuse

 

Armed with my best tweezers, a jar of Vaseline, a book of matches, a towel, a box of tissues, a couple Band-aids, and an old ashtray, I approach Pollock. He knows I’m up to something and leaps off the couch and dashes into my room, to hide, no doubt, in my closet.

Lynn Beighley, Tick

 

You are Clark Kent and Peter Pan and an ordinary kid, sick and with a strange name, living in an ordinary home.

Andrew Stancek, Moirologia

 

“Probably some standing sex appointment with his wife. When else would he have time? He makes me feel really smart, though, which is a new thing for me.”

Rachel Ambrose, Really Weird Shit

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” I don’t mean to snap at him but I’m really not fine, and clouting my skull on the car didn’t help.

Gill Hoffs, Cold Comfort

 

“Your mother suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack, also know as a ‘baby stroke’,” she says. “I know the nickname doesn’t make it any cuter, but these attacks are thankfully mild. Ms. McKenzie is asleep now, but we expect her to make a full recovery. She’s a tough old bird.”

Jessica McHugh, The Cross to Bear

 

“Her dad’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He’s only in his early forties.” He twiddles his thumbs amongst the forest of hair covering his torso. “She’s been pretty cut up about it.”

Shane Simmons, The Displeasure Principle

 

She smells like summer, even now. Salt. Sugar. Sun. He will never forget this smell.

Michelle Elvy, Sand

 

I’m not broke, but I’m getting there. Besides, it’s lonely on the road and strangers are never as friendly as you’d guess.

Len Kuntz, Dirty Martinis

 

“Hey stranger,” she says. It is Jen, the reporter from Comcast, the only member of the press corps I remotely get along with.

Michael Webb, Ninth Inning

 

At the stop, Melodie is arm-in-arm with one of the musicians from the band she played with the night he first saw her in Hogan’s. A tinny feeling comes over the Bird and he totters backwards and almost trips over the leg of a chair.

James Claffey, High and Dry as Those Trapped Souls

 

Phone’s off. Neither she nor the others can call or text to see why I’m not at the meeting.

Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz, My Suicide, Interrupted

 

We’ve come to depend on each other. I drive him to the grocery store and mow the lawn and he lets me use his computer for the draft of my novel.

Stephen V. Ramey, Undone

 

Sam hones in on the old guy, then studies his dog. Al? Fred? Gus! The dog is Gus? No, the old man is Gus, the same one who helped him search the Trencher mansion for Charmaine.

Gay Degani, Guilt

 

I thought it might be one of the goats playing a practical joke, knocking on the door, and then I thought, no, wait a minute, if it was one of the goats I would have heard hooves on the stairs and the bell around its neck, ringing with each step.

Sally-Anne Macomber, Connections

 

“It’s only three weeks, Mum. I haven’t had a proper holiday since we all went to Wilsons Prom when Dad was still alive.” God, that’s twenty years ago.

Mandy Nicol, One Way or Another

 

“Well Nora, they’re tart and sweet, just like you. And since birds of a feather …” Rob’s voice trails off, and his eyes squint in the sun. “Nora, does Ned have a dog?”

Margaret Bingel, Dr. Stanley Has a Date

 

Hey, Doc, wait, did I tell you I met someone? At a bake sale of all places actually. It’s an interesting story.

Darryl Price, Big As Life

 

My father dropped me off that day in his sports car, loud with rock music. His car attracted as many boys as my long legs in a short skirt.

Teresa Burns Gunther, Take a Leap

 

I want to ask her if, by the family’s getting so large, she means in number or in size, but it’s not always a good thing to ask a customer just how fat her family is, in case their weight is tipping the Richter scale.

Matt Potter, Morgana Malone and the Mystery of the Secret Gift

 

I loved getting your three (count ‘em, 3) emails since we agreed to have no contact. I love hearing from you, and knowing that you are thinking about me even as I am thinking about you.

Gary Percesepe, Letter to Q

 

“Are you a clone?” Samford asks, even though he knows it is too forward. He can’t imagine the clones are really this old, but one never can tell.

Nathaniel Tower, The Clone Whores

 

She’s breaking most of the rules. Mum’s hands hover over the Ouija Board and she’s concentrating so hard to force a conjuring of what she wants to hear as opposed to allowing me to lead her.

Kimberlee Smith, Swallowed Whole

 

I spent my entire life being called “Slim Jim” and hating it. Now, Iris calls me nothing but “James,” which I find myself hating even more.

Vanessa Weibler Paris, Four Ounces, Plain

 

He’s acting like he doesn’t have a care in the world humming to himself with a stupid smile on his face, but he’s pale and I see perspiration stains under the armpits of his rather unglamorous prisoner tee shirt.

Joanne Jagoda, Eli and Damon