family
Anxiety
“Hey papá,” he says, walking out of his room with his face in his phone, “you think you can drive me to the store?” Here we go again. What is it this time? Out of vapes? Or maybe he’s craving a 40? Drives me insane. Don’t know what to do. How to change it. I want to change it, but he’s so impossible. Where did it go wrong? Jesus Christ, my life was much harder than his and I dealt with so much more shit, and it didn’t turn me into a lazy bum. Why can’t he get his act together?
By Lucas Díaz-Medina5 years ago in Fiction
From Around Here
So I’m standing at my register in Stump’s Supermarket, checking people through my line without any of my usual crazy thoughts, when Reynaldo comes into the store with this uppity-looking white woman. I don’t realize that it’s Reynaldo right away because he doesn’t look like the Reynaldo I used to know.
By Lucas Díaz-Medina5 years ago in Fiction
The Rainstorm
Just south of New Domangue proper, where the people living in hamlets along the skeleton-patterned, shell-covered riverside road known as Maple Street waited for the asphalt that had been promised more than twenty years ago, Nadine Bouchenaix dreamed of one day running upriver toward New Orleans. If she could just reach the big city lights where she believed her mother waited for her, she would be able to fill the emptiness she’d known her entire life. Now, barely fifteen years old, Nadine worried about a different sort of emptiness, one that she wished was inside her instead of the growing womb that pushed against her jeans.
By Lucas Díaz-Medina5 years ago in Fiction
Guilt
“If that father of yours had known how to be strategic, he might be alive right now. Then again, even if he was strategic, it may not have mattered. Returning to Maimón after such a long time, Pietro walked in here like he was famous. He ran around like he was royalty from the moment he showed his face. He was boastful and showy, traits he wasn’t remembered for when he was last seen around here,” Guzmán shared in Spanish with Hector.
By Lucas Díaz-Medina5 years ago in Fiction
Available
“I don’t know what else to do, quite frankly,” Machato Perez shares with his sister. “Have you thought about that alternative school? You know, the one where they focus on doing things physically? I think they do lots of wood working, garden work, you know, stuff like that.”
By Lucas Díaz-Medina5 years ago in Fiction
The Unsat Chair
I spent lots of summers on my grandparent's farm when I was growing up. There was one thing that was always undisturbed. It was a sky blue chair that sat right in front of the storage house on the property. All of the grand children called it 'the unsat chair.' As long as I can remember, no one ever got away with sitting in it. If one dared to place their bottom in it, they would immediately be reprimanded. Grandma Clara made sure that the chair had due respect. As time passed, the chair was never revitalized. The vibrant blue color slowly peeled off. The lavender colored background slowly begun to shed over time. This story will tell you why the chair had been set aside for years.
By Words by Mary5 years ago in Fiction
Will You Stay with Me?
I should have known that something was up with Papi when he came home early and didn’t do anything to us after he caught us running from the street toward the house as fast as we could. That wasn’t the first time he’d come home when he wasn’t supposed to. One time, five months ago, everyone at the refinery was sent home early when there was a leak from one of the tanks. Papi came home excited at first, but after he cleaned up and ate dinner, all he did was complain about being tired, about not being paid enough, and about the many things that were wrong with New Domangue. Then he fell asleep in front of the TV.
By Lucas Díaz-Medina5 years ago in Fiction
Elf Pink Slip
It is almost that time! The countdown for Christmas is around the corner! As Santa’s helpers are working their magic on the assembly lines making sure that every good little boy and girl gets what is on their Christmas list, something unusual happens.
By Ireland Lorelei 5 years ago in Fiction
A Murder of Crows
A Murder of Crows Tommo, Thomas really, but Tommo is his preferred choice of name, leaves his place of work after a hard day of toil. It is a ghastly factory in an even more ghastly area, but it pays the way in the world. First, he is on the small machines and then, at the hands of a malicious foreman who thinks he should do better, the big machines. The ones that really test you, ones you are only supposed to work for a couple of hours but no, his boss sees to it he is on that bastard for the last five hours of his shift, despite his hands bleeding from his previous three hours. At this point he couldn’t care less as he knows the sunshine will be in his life soon, just as soon as he completes the five-mile walk from factory to freedom. Sometimes this life will do, it is not so bad.
By Simon Morrell5 years ago in Fiction
The great eagle and the little cricket
It all began on a cool summer day. Little cricket was always scared of countless things, always afraid he would be laughed at. He never dared to do things like the others. As cricket grew, he remained scared, always pulling what courage he did have from his friends. He could never jump on his own, always looking for help from others.
By Caleb Edmonds5 years ago in Fiction
