Of Mice and Hofmann

By Michael Michailidis
I could never forget those mice, the way they looked at me when I administered the compound, LSD-25.

First Winter After the ...

By JSP Jacobs
Breathless, she steadies herself against the front door, turns to survey all she’s done. A clear path shoveled through the snow.

English 101

By Amy J. Kirkwood
Red pen buzzing through and over her dream-laced stories, always. Are you sure about the use of ‘extra-ordinary’, here? (sp) exclaimed, exceptional.

Tarriers

By Marianne Rossant
We sang the mining shanty at chorus time: the sound of a drill going down down into the ground, the gritty grey of the miner’s faces docile for the sweet dark tea and the hardest of biscuits...

Names

By Santian Vataj
In the beginning, it was snuggle-butt and cuddle-squirrel, sugarcane, kitten breath and squishy-bear.

The Host

By Kathy Fish
One day, my indignation manifested as a ruptured appendix. I took it for indigestion because my indigestion had always been a manifestation of my dissatisfaction, from which I continued to suffer.

Rings

By Jeff Simonds
Until I took it off, I never realized how much I noticed my wedding band (chiming quietly against utensils, loosening its grip when I showered, orbiting my finger secretly throughout the day).

Hanover Park

By Chuck Augello
Their first date: an old plaid quilt spread over damp grass, pint-sized cartons of vegetable fried rice, a wayward kite trapped in the branches of an ancient elm tree.

Photo Story: A Family o...

By Elaine McKay
Dad enters stage left, and his voice is louder than the television. He points his syllables accusingly.

My Future Depends On It

By Miriam Ben-Yoseph
I was 15 when we left Romania. It was 1965. Ceausescu just came to power. At the airport they searched our luggage and peered into our bodies.

Photo Story: The Other ...

By Melissa Jacob
My daily constitutional treads a familiar story arc. Swerve raccoon-eyed adults being dragged along by relentless toddlers.

Underwater

By Sabrina Hicks
The silence in Sarah’s head had texture—waves licking sand, leaving foamy layers. She blinked in a doctor removing his mask.

Birds in Heat

By John Paul Martinez
There’s a stain on the left wing. She tells me she doesn’t know how it got there, but I know it’s from when she was younger.

Row

By Charmaine Wilkerson
When the earth beneath their stone houses started to crumble they said, this, too, will pass. When the foundations cracked and the walls fell into the dust, they moved into wooden houses.

Hydrological

By Todd Mercer
The upstairs shower? Solid pressure ‘til it cuts to drizzle. Incomplete rinse of foam from an eye. That’s life, when the downstairs toilet flushes.

Final Tally

By Cathy Safiran
The letters were crude block capitals, searing ink poked into the skin on her thighs with a sewing needle wielded by her own hand.

Announcing the 100 Word...

Each 100 word story is its own kind of special. Now you can read 117 of our favorites published over the past 6 years in "Nothing Short Of: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story."

Collecting

By Ariel Berry
We are a family of collectors. We have diverse interests and collect many kinds of things. Rocks, stamps, small pieces of licorice.

Lost Downstream

By Linda Grierson-Irish
Our father was an ancient river god. We, his fish, speared by his glance, gutted ‘til our mangled hearts bled, steeped in his ale-soused breath.

Photo Story: The Doll I...

By Ryan Dempsey
They’d tried to forget it, tried to leave it in Raleigh, but it made the trip, hiding amongst the other boxes still sealed from the move.