Tag / short stories

by Janet

Watch the World Burn

The Man Upstairs

A Fictional Series

LARRY FERGUSON, UNIT 101

I moved into Fourth and Main twenty years ago and it was the best complex in the city. At the time. Over the last few years the building has either gone to shit, or I’m just more particular about my surroundings. Maybe both.

The pipes groan whenever someone flushes, and the common rooms need some serious cleaning. What really gets me, though, is that the walls are paper thin. 

The tenants used to be quieter back in the day. Most were elderly, and those folks have either died or gone to care homes – the owner included. Not dead. His son sent him to some place called Dignity Retreat. Just a fancy name for a care home, I reckon. Continue reading →

by Janet

Learning to Fly

Stories We Tell

A Fictional Series

After my mother passed away, I was totally without family. I never knew my biological father, and my mother had no relatives to speak of. She never talked about her past, so I had no idea if I had any family who were living – or where they might be.

While social services tried to work things out, I was sent to live with the Cross family. I could tell right away that Dizzy and David weren’t used to kids. They were really nice people, but they had a nervous air about them – an uneasiness that a couple might have when they bring home a new baby. Continue reading →

by Janet

Breadcrumbs

Stories We Tell

A Fictional Series

The story of my first crush is a little weird. I was twelve, and about as wild as they come. Not in a bad way, really. I just had this boundless energy that drove people nuts. I’ve always had it, even when I was a small child. 

My parents love to tell me about the crazy things that I did, stories that I can’t recollect because I was too young to remember. My favorite is the time that my dad took me to the grocery store and I managed to escape ‘shopping cart prison’. 

You know… where you sit in the front of the cart, staring at your parent with your legs dangling between a bar, and then they buckle you in with a strap that has been thoughtfully installed in the cart. What an ingenious invention that was.  Continue reading →