Category Archives: Friday Fictioneers

December 26, 2014

Kid Logic – Friday Fictioneers

Merry Christmas to everyone from the Green-Walled Tower! There is no snow touching its ivy-covered sides since this year has been unseasonably warm where I am, although it is still Christmas inside. I have been surrounded by young children and Christmas themes this weeks: thus, this story.

Kid Logic

The boys charged up the steps of the old castle, glad to be free of the car.

“The steps are lava!” Jack yelled.

“But they’re green,” Henry said. “They’re like little Christmas trees. Maybe there are tiny people there who decorate them at Christmas.”

“And Santa delivers presents, riding in the Catbus.”

“And then a dragon comes out of the ground and fights the Catbus and the people hide in the Christmas trees.”

“Yeah, they climb inside ornaments and use them for their houses.”

At that moment, Batman ballerina ran between them, crushing innumerable imaginary Christmas trees under her feet.

my little Batman ballerina

26 Comments | tags: castle, children, fantasy, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, funny, imagination, logic, quirky | posted in Friday Fictioneers

December 17, 2014

The Amber Man – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Isn’t it interesting how a story can change when seen through the window of a hundred words? Last week’s story, Holding the Bridge generated a lot of interesting ideas about what had happened to the guard on the bridge, which fit with the hundred-word version. Click here to read the longer story about what really happened on the bridge.

The Amber Man

The lights came on, treacling back to my retinas.

“Here’s where we keep him, gentlemen.”

Humans. Real people, at last.

Squeeze their throats. Burst their brains.

“How is he not dead?

“Someone this powerful? If he could die from starvation, this setup wouldn’t have been necessary.”

Help me! For God’s sake, don’t leave me again!

Kill them. Kill them all!

“It’s a shame. His advances saved billions of lives.”

“He also slaughtered fifty million with his bare hands.”

“He looks so peaceful.”

“Thanks to the drugs. Inside though it’s a war: like an angel and demon caught together in amber.”

36 Comments | tags: amber, angel, Demon, drugs, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, prison, superhuman | posted in Friday Fictioneers

December 3, 2014

Hope, Through Fire and Ice – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

I almost missed Friday Fictioneers last week. I was away for Thanksgiving, so I couldn’t post a story until last night. If you’re interested in reading it, it’s here. Here in Fayette, Iowa it’s a bright, frosty day with a windchill of -12 (Celsius). Perfect for an icy story.

Hope, Through Fire and Ice

“Kill me. Please!”

The healer looked at him gravely. “When I was a little girl, I contracted the burning sickness too. An alchemist injected ice into my veins to save my life. One drop was enough but his hand shook and he put in three. From then on, I could never get warm. I begged for death but it didn’t come.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“To tell you there is hope. Good can come from even the worst situations.” With that, she breathed her cooling breath on him and for the first time in months, he felt relief.

30 Comments | tags: alchemy, fiction, fire, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, healer, ice, sickness | posted in Friday Fictioneers

December 2, 2014

Out There – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Happy very belated Thanksgiving to everyone! I was traveling for most of last week, visiting relatives in LOLIA (the Land Of Limited Internet Access). However, I did have a lot of driving to do: around 24 hours in a car with no radio or CD player. I made up one great story for this picture, but then needed more than 100 words to tell it properly. So I made up another one, but the same thing happened. So I made up a third, which is below. I’ll write the other ones down soon and post them as well.

This story is so late for the Fictioneers that the next week’s picture is due out in a few hours. But I wanted to do it, so as not to miss any.

Out There

“I just lose myself in the library!” my brother exclaimed once.

“You mean in the stories?” I asked.

“No, beyond them. In the worlds beyond paper and ink and words. Out there.”

I hugged him and thought: quirky.

Until the paranoia set in. He stopped going to the library unarmed and then stopped altogether. He changed his route to school to avoid it. Finally, he broke in and washed the shelves in gasoline. You could see the blaze for miles. The town was about to crucify him.

Until they found the partially-burned thing in the ashes of the horror section.

12 Comments | tags: brother, creepy, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, library, monster, other worlds | posted in Friday Fictioneers

November 19, 2014

Doughnut Man – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

As an update, my first Green-Walled Time Machine post is now up. Come take a look at the weird world of advertisements in teacher magazines in 1913.

Doughnut Man

We passed the Michelin garage and right on cue, Brad started to whine.

“I want a doughnut, Dad. I want a doughnut . . .”

I snapped at him. “Those are tires, not doughnuts.” No good, of course. I was too exhausted to argue. We went to Tim Horton’s and I watched him stick his finger through the doughnut hole, rolling it around and making car noises. From tires to doughnuts and back to tires.

“Dad . . . Can I get a toy car? I want a toy car. Please? Pleeeease?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“If I get you one, you’ll just want a doughnut again.”

71 Comments | tags: doughnuts, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Michelin Man, son, tires | posted in Friday Fictioneers

November 13, 2014

Powdered Sugar – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

I was a little late getting this story in this week since I was at a conference yesterday with my students, who participated in a panel discussion about their experiences learning English.

On an unrelated note, I recently received two boxes of magazines that my great-great aunt had collected over her lifetime. There are some amazing things in there, from bizarre advertisements to an account of the Titanic disaster published the week after it happened in 1912. And much more. I’m starting a weekly segment known as the Green-Walled Time Machine where I’ll share things from the magazines. A new one will be up every Thursday from next week.

And now, on with the story…

Powdered Sugar

The expression on the people’s faces looked like acceptance, just as anthrax looks like powdered sugar.

The fat man on the balcony saw nothing but powdered sugar as he beamed down at the crowd.

“Good morning, everyone! I’m Mr. Krantz, your new owner. I just bought you and this whole street from Mr. Grouse, who’s retiring from the chattel business. I’ll leave your shops alone, don’t worry, although we’ll probably sell off some children here and there. Just business, of course. Nothing personal.”

He chuckled. These people wouldn’t be a problem. They looked weak and insubstantial. Just like powdered sugar.

27 Comments | tags: anthrax, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, owner, powdered sugar, slavery | posted in Friday Fictioneers

November 5, 2014

The Eye of the Beholder – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

The Eye of the Beholder

“Will it hurt?”

“Yes.”

He looked down at her bloated, misshapen body, lying naked on the operating table. In his mind, he planned the surgery and his new, glorious creation came into view.

Cut away disgusting fat.

Replace sallow skin with sparkling chrome.

Graft incorruptible titanium onto weak, brittle bone.

Shave hideous, stringy hair.

Swap out dull, corpulent eyes for powerful, far-seeing ones.

He saw her rise out the blasphemy of flesh, with the purr of servomotors and the sensual hiss of intake valves.

She swallowed, then nodded. “But you’ll make me beautiful?”

“More beautiful than you could ever imagine.”

38 Comments | tags: android, beauty, creepy, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, surgery, woman | posted in Friday Fictioneers

October 29, 2014

Courage at the End – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

This is my 100th Friday Fictioneers story, which means that I’ve written 10,000 words since I’ve started the Friday Fictioneers. Here’s to 10,000 more. Also, those of you who got here through the Friday Fictioneers portal saw that I have a new icon, different from my normal Delta Sigma one. This signals new things to come. More details to come later.