Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Humans.
The Geography of Solitude
Something behind him attracted her eye. Something like a flash of lightening, but no, not in this clear sky. Silhouetted against the sunset, he stood on deck and waved – a kind of jerky salute – for a few seconds. The sky turned orange. She waved from the jetty, too late. He lowered his head, back arched; loosening a line, or adjusting a winch.
Rosanne DingliPublished 3 years ago in HumansLegacy of the Sea: Chapter One, Part One
“That went better than I expected.” “Are you saying you didn’t think I could do it?” turning, I glanced at Martin. “I’m not saying that,” the man said. His weathered face wrinkled as he smirked at me, and his white hair was tugged playfully by the light breeze.
Tristan PalmerPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Interview
“All I ever wanted was to be wanted,” I thought to myself as I was filling out the job application. I hadn’t done one of these in years. My hand trembling at the thought of another interview. The waiting room was empty, even though the listing touted that positions were filling up fast. It looked like a hospital waiting room. I kept thinking how at any moment a surgeon would burst through the door, bloodied scrubs, and tell me that he did his best. But no. Just a regular waiting room. I glanced back down at application and gazed at the questionnaire portion. Question 21: What do you want? I had to admit, this simple question put me deep in thought for the last ten minutes or so. I tried to move past it, but found myself digging deep for an answer. An answer that a prospective employer would want to hear, not one that would have them staring at me wide-eyed, mouths agape. “What do I want”? Many answers flooded my brain. I wanted a lot of things. To be rich seemed like the logical response. Financially stable at the very least. If I was rich I’m sure it wouldn’t last though. My giving nature had put my pockets in a tight squeeze on more than one occasion. You see, giving makes me happy. If I was rich, others would be rich as well. And that would put me right back in the position I currently find myself in. Jobless and broke. I guess broke was too vague a descriptor of my troubles. I wasn’t digging in the seat cushions broke. I was more of the pawning most of my possessions broke. I’d done it many times in my life. I would buy something to make me happy, which it did, for a time. Then I found myself just staring at the items collecting dust and hating myself for spending the money. “I want to be happy?” The fact that it came to me as a question proved that I didn’t know what would make me happy. I was happy. I mean, I had been happy. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had actually been really happy. I knew contentment very well. But to be honest, happiness had always eluded me. Sad, broke and nothing to show for it. I looked up from the clipboard as if someone had heard my thoughts aloud. But, the quietness of the empty room just made me come to another conclusion. “ I want to not be lonely,” I thought. I mean, I wasn’t lonely at all though. I had friends. I had a job. Not anymore, but it was there before all of this. I had a loving wife. I couldn’t think about all that now. It was the past. Time to move on. I tapped the pencil against the clip board and sighed. As I continued to ponder the question, one of the office doors opened up. I looked up and saw a woman with bright red hair. “They are ready to see you now,” she said. I grabbed the application off the clipboard and started to explain that I didn’t finish filling it out. The woman just smiled and said, “No need. We just use them to get an idea of who we are hiring. Everyone gets placed no matter what.” A feeling of both relief and confusion came over me as I followed her into another room. Inside there were three men, all in business attire, sitting behind a long table. One of them motioned me to a single seat in front of them. I sat down and nervously straightened my tie and thought how the table looked like something I would’ve bought in the past. “I wonder how long that would’ve made me happy for” I said in my head before fearing that somehow my face might convey the thought. The man in the middle glared at me and, in a booming voice, said, “So, now that you are here, I’d like to get right into it!” God-like, his voice I thought. He must practice that tone frequently. No wonder he’s sitting behind that long table and I’m just another interviewee. I mustered my best job interview face and prepared myself for what I felt was going to be a long interrogation. He then looked down at a paper in front of him, then to the men on both sides of him. And back at me. “So, he said in his god-like voice, I guess the most important question would be...what do you want?”
Bobby SteelePublished 3 years ago in HumansOur Dream
Dear Papa, Do you want to know a secret? I dreamt of you again last night. You had blonde hair and blue eyes in this one, unlike the night before, where you were brown-haired and brown-eyed.
Smooth Seas Don't Make Good Sailors.
I stood motionless, my breath painting pictures in the cold night air, waiting, waiting, for the energy to move. That gut wrenching feeling in my stomach, the one I'd come to be so familiar with showed no signs of letting go. A car honked its horn. People bustled past. The world had moved on.
Ciarán ColemanPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Miraculously Unlikely Reunion of Strangers
“I was there the night your son died.” This stranger, whom I had just met uttered these words that bonded us forever. Tears filled both of our eyes as we silently embraced this miraculous reunion.
Maria CalderoniPublished 3 years ago in HumansOn The Floor
I don’t particularly have a lot of regrets in my life, not that I am perfect by any means but at my age, you have to learn how to cope with the mistakes you made and move on. However, I do have one truly embarrassing moment that I do laugh about now mostly because it’s a decade old and well, I can’t change it so laughing about it is the only thing to do.
Sharon KoehlerPublished 3 years ago in HumansAdaptation Evaluation: ‘Nomadland’
“We not only accept the tyranny of the dollar, the tyranny of the marketplace, we embrace it. We gladly throw the yoke of the tyranny of the dollar on and live by it our whole lives.” So says Bob Wells, a sort of van life guru, when we first see him in Nomadland as he’s speaking to congregants at a desert gathering. While Nomadland’s largely a work of fiction, Bob Wells is a real person, so who we see isn’t simply a fictional character in Nomadland, or maybe he is a fictionalized version of himself, even if he really is Bob Wells. It’s a little complicated.
MovieBabblePublished 3 years ago in HumansA Crack in My Windshield
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.
Shawn IngramPublished 3 years ago in HumansEndurance
Chapter 4: The First 5K LaSalle Street - 7:44 AM The lead runners are approaching the 5K marker on LaSalle Street, and they grab their personal bottles of refreshments. Michael grabs his bottle from the refreshment table, and he starts to drink. Nick and Walter are just ahead of him.
Marcus CarterPublished 3 years ago in HumansYou Wanna Bet
Being a Batiste came with expectations that I had no interest in adopting. Our bloodline was deep-rooted here in New Orleans, Louisiana long ago.
Cassie SmilezPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Island
Adrift again and alone in a rolling ocean, rudderless, and following the tides. The stars moved along the sky at night, and the sun crept from one horizon to the other, making sure to pause overhead and beat down unrelenting with no reprieve. Day after day, night after night, sailing onward at the ocean’s mercy. Little room to move, but enough to get up and manoeuvre around with some relative ease. Everything was wet, from clothes to food, and nothing was safe from the sea’s reach. Apart from adjusting the sail, there was no controlling the little boat’s course, and with no compass or map, there was no way to know where one was apart from the stars at night. Rest, that was it, for, with a little hope, land would eventually be made.
Andrew HallPublished 3 years ago in Humans