Reflections on living three fifths a century But old age, to begin with, has something in common with death. Some face it with indifference, not because they have more courage than others, but because they have less imagination.“ Marcel Proust, Time Regained – I am slowly turning into Marcel Proust. Okay, that may… Continue reading Becoming Proust
Category: essays
Banished Man
On loving the unavailable He remembers their early times together. How, at times, she would send him away with her terse instructions: Go work on yourself, and the classic if inscrutable, Get your shit together. What could he do? Banished, he did as she asked, he went away. He would make some token… Continue reading Banished Man
An Ugly Chair
Ordinary horror in the mundane The chair sits awkwardly in the shallow corner between the fireplace and the patio door (it’s a small apartment), shrouded under an ugly brown, queen-sized blanket I bought years ago on my way to a meditation retreat. That year we had a bitterly cold winter, and the retreat center was old… Continue reading An Ugly Chair
A Note to COVID Long-Haulers
Hungry ghosts, branching universes, and day-drinking Psst! Do you want to know a secret? I know why you feel so bad. Physically and mentally. You think you have lingering effects from your bout of COVID-19, and you likely do, but perhaps there’s something else at play here. When you remember it, you recall two phases.… Continue reading A Note to COVID Long-Haulers
My 100-Day Flash Challenge Part 4
Days 76 – 100 On March 18, 2021, I began a crazy adventure. That was the day I started my 100-day flash fiction challenge. My goal was to write, edit, publish one story per day for one hundred days. Below, I summarize the fourth 25 days of my challenge. The Final 25 Stories The End… Continue reading My 100-Day Flash Challenge Part 4
My 100-Day Flash Challenge Part 3
Days 51 – 75 On March 18, 2021, I began a crazy adventure. That was the day I started my 100-day flash fiction challenge. My goal was to write, edit, publish one story per day for one hundred days. Below, I summarize the third 25 days of my challenge. The Third 25 Stories Clive AND… Continue reading My 100-Day Flash Challenge Part 3
My 100-Day Flash Challenge Part 1
Days 1 – 25 On March 18, 2021, I began a crazy adventure. That was the day I started my 100-day flash fiction challenge. My goal was to write, edit, publish one story per day for one hundred days. The following is a summary of the first 25 days of my challenge. The First 25… Continue reading My 100-Day Flash Challenge Part 1
Writing Prompt 015
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 78 “A bicycle,” I say to the salesperson who asked me what I wanted. I mean, duh, we are in a bike store. I’m trying to slow the aging process. Also, I want to reduce my carbon footprint, etc. A bike for my commute to and from the massage… Continue reading Writing Prompt 015
Allowance
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 52 It’s easy to slip into a poverty mindset when you grow up poor. Not only is there never enough, but you also absolutely believe there will never be enough. Permanent, debilitating financial ruin is just one mishap away. One unplanned emergency is all it will take to make… Continue reading Allowance
A Crack in My Windshield
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 38 I don’t remember how the windshield crack began. At some point, some bit of something from the road had struck it just right to set it in place. Initially, it was just a short jagged line. Then it slowly meandered its way across the entire windshield. It began… Continue reading A Crack in My Windshield
The Last Sunset
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 37 The writing prompt today was ‘What is a dream you’ve had that you want to live in forever?’ That’s easy. It was a dream I had years ago, with all the plot holes and inconsistencies of a bad movie. I and some faceless others are hiking up a… Continue reading The Last Sunset
Nebraska
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 36 2012 was the year he’d made all the bold changes. Unfortunately, he had never been a bold, big change kind of guy. They were all formed in some romanticized notion of how life would be there, in the non-denominational spiritual retreat center. He couldn’t envision it without imagining… Continue reading Nebraska
Someone is Living in My Mirror
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 31 Someone is living in my mirror. Every time I look in it, he is there. And I’m not happy about it, not at all. For starters, he is always mimicking me! If I move my right arm, he moves his left; when I look to the left, he… Continue reading Someone is Living in My Mirror
Memory
FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 26 Memory is such a funny thing. It is vastly more subjective that I thought it was in my twenties. It is not a file cabinet full of intact, coherent, cohesive facts that are strung together in any sort of narrative, yielding a ‘truth.’ Far from it. Memory is… Continue reading Memory
Dancing with Covid-19 Round 2
Today, April 12, 2021, I received my second Moderna vaccination. As a massage therapist, I felt I needed to be vaccinated before returning to work. Here was my entry for my first vaccination. https://storiesbyshawn.com/2021/03/09/dancing-with-covid-19/ I received my first dose just over a month ago. I was so happy that I sat in my car and… Continue reading Dancing with Covid-19 Round 2
Shame
FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 25 I was sixteen years old and a junior in high school when I uttered the fateful sentence that would change how several classmates felt about me. “My dad dumped our dog, Shadow, yesterday,” I said. I had no idea what would happen next. There was a bit of… Continue reading Shame
Finding Time
He remembers. Riding in the back seat of their 1967 Chevrolet Bel Air. The windows slightly cracked, the cold fall and winter wind chilling him to his bones. Shivering, huddled in whatever sweater or jacket he was wearing. Isn’t that the way he thinks? Whenever a hot-blooded person meets a cold-blooded person; one of them… Continue reading Finding Time
