The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty Riesling. He knew. The dinner was torment. Every word said fraught with double entendre, silent condemnation beneath pleasantness. He was a surf and turf man, washed down with cabernet sauvignon. But for this dinner, in front of parents and children, it was chicken cordon bleu, a below-the-radar reference to her colleague, John Riesling. […]

Friday Fiction: ‘Ozzysandersous’

by Smitty The wizened old man in a land antique, Sat in the shade before a market ruined. He hailed to me: “Man, what do you seek, In the Fair Trade Bazaar of Xanaxind?” “Some cold water, since English you speak, If one can such in this ancient rubble find. How must the former sights […]

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty Look at the young “family”. “We frome Venezuela,” says the “father”, haggard. Woman carrying one baby and with a small, thin waif clinging to a leg. Shove off the wall, walk toward the large sedan. Rooftop lookout signals safety with the laser pointer. Open the door, in they go. Guy’d been a Department […]

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty They walked down the path toward her favorite spot. Roger could not understand why, the closer they got, the slower dad walked, the more heavy his sighs became, the more freely his tears flowed. Somehow he felt guilty. “I’m so sorry, daddy.” Daddy was sobbing by the time they got to the tree […]

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty He looked at the youthful photo his sister had taken. He recalled staring into the lamp at dusk, prayerfully pondering Providence. * * * The recruiter had come swiftly, taking him off to join the military. War; carnage; promotion followed. Decades later, nominally the same but radically altered, he stood in that field, […]

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty He turned with his camera and snapped the picture. Previewing it on the screen, he saw that she’d brought the Looney Tunes float, swallowed, and managed a teary chuckle at her triumph. Their last trip to Chincoteague had been seven years ago, when their son Brian was a laughing toddler, full of joy, […]

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty He leaned back against the tree with his sister and just laughed. Nearby, the neighbor kids had gathered the November leaves from the lawn into a vast heap below the old oak. They were taking turns on the rope swing, carefully gauging the release, to fly through the air and land in the […]

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty They walked past the arcade on a Friday for, yeah, about the 500th time, with a smile. Decades ago when the club had had an outing here, her coin jammed in a machine. Full of bravado, he’d hit it with the heel of his hand. Freed the coin, sure. His eyes had welled […]

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