Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Humans.
Follow Your Dream
The old school at the end of the cul-de-sac had stood empty for some time. No little feet ran through the gym, no laughter echoed in the classrooms, no smell of mildewing lunches in cubbies permeated the halls. It had been years since Bellshore Public had been a working elementary school. Now the vines grew across the outside of the old brick and cinder block walls. The windows were mostly all painted shut, and the doorways were covered with plywood, and some were chained with heavy iron locks. In the playground, the old play structures had weeds and shrubs growing around them, and were rusting from lack of care. Some of the walls had been tagged by local graffiti artists, and the concrete around the rest of the yard had heaved and buckled with time and the shifting earth underneath. The school was one of those buildings that had seemed to just always be there. The neighbors couldn’t remember a time before it was built, and now that it had withered with disuse, the community mainly pretended it wasn’t there -- an eyesore, but mostly an invisible one. Except for the urban explorers. They loved the school and all the antiquated items found inside. It made a perfect subject for their photography. They had found secret ways of getting inside, and once inside they skulked about snapping shots of torn basketball nets, piles of desks, mountains of old rotting textbooks, broken cubby hooks and just about anything else they could find that looked like “urbex art”. Seth Collins was one of these young urban explorers. Just shy of 22, and still living at home with his parents, he had taken a gap year to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, and while working shifts at a local photography shop, he discovered that what he loved was capturing a beautiful and original photograph.
Mandy Albania WeinerPublished 3 years ago in HumansLate for the Sky
We sat on the steps of Sharon's brownstone waiting for Maggie. We were driving up to Tanglewood for a concert, Jackson Browne. Sharon squinted into the sun, then put her forehead on her knees and sighed. “We're gonna be late,” she said.
Karen GoldsteinPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Plan
“I know it’s in here somewhere,” Mina said as she slammed the kitchen drawers closed. She opened the pantry door, a place she knew to be futile searching grounds, and moved every container and box. Nothing. She returned to the kitchen and began opening drawers like a crazy woman once more.
Jenny ZunigaPublished 3 years ago in HumansIf It's Five Million
Michigan, 2019 I’m standing in my little blue kitchen cooking bacon, thinking of Stasia. Every time with bacon, Stasia comes to mind, because she first taught me. In Virginia, when we were teenagers. Her momma Ruth sitting to the side, eyes a little glazed but laughing deep. Ruth, she could laugh, and so much made her, even with all the sadness she carried. Stasia’s standing over the pan, gently flipping each piece, one by one. You know how a moment can happen and you don’t know then that you’ll come back to it, for the rest of your life? This – it’s that.
Lisa GordilloPublished 3 years ago in HumansMY FATHER, THE STRANGER
It started with a farm and it ended with a farm. Only the animals changed. Pigs became horses. Somewhere in the outskirts of London on an abandoned meadow, a sign sways quietly in the wind.
Björn ZahnPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Bridge
She walked out into the cold air of a waning winter night. The wind was still, and the sky was cloudy and filled with the smell of impending snow. It had been a long night on the unit. No deaths, but so many precious souls and their family saying goodbye. She understood how they felt. Not in that fleeting, “I know how you feel” way, but in the way only somebody who knows the loss of someone integral to their world feels. She had always hated that expression “they are in a better place and out of pain” or even worse, “it will get easier with time”. Although in her heart she knew the part of being in a better place was true, it did not lessen the missing. She had always been grateful for the long walk to her car. A time for unwinding, releasing, breathing. Recently, the walk seemed longer and the quiet overwhelming. It had started to snow. She was glad. It covered the tears that filled her eyes as the memories of leaving this place not so long ago came flooding back, and with it, the missing.
Francine CriderPublished 3 years ago in HumansStroke of Luck
Opening the front door to Stroke of Luck diner, the bell jingles as Lauren shuts it behind her as she steps outside. Multiple grease stains litter Lauren’s black shirt, some more noticeable in the moonlight, the streetlamp next to the diner still broken, giving only the moon as light to lock the front door. She yawns, covering her mouth as she locks the front door to the little diner, her shoulders tense and in pain from carrying plates of food all day. She stretches her neck side to side to relieve some of the tension, but it is only temporary.
Rachel BarbelerPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Duck Pond
It was a sunny Tuesday morning. Warm, for March. A little early for ducklings, but they chirped and splashed anyway, three small yellow-brown fuzzy balls who resided in the small pond in the park. They were Cole’s favourite thing, at the moment, the best part of his week as he walked to his appointment with Dr. Lassiter, feet heavier than his head.
Ayasha KawakitaPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Lake
He was a wise man. He was different from an intelligent man, but he was as smart as any other man he knew. At least he liked to think so anyway.
Madalynn Jean LeePublished 3 years ago in HumansAm I defined and destined from birth?
Until now I have never really thought about my zodiac sign. The fact that a star sign determines my characteristics always seemed very unreliable to me.
The Space Between Suns
For several weeks after that, we heard of raids on various speakeasies around town. None of them were Chas’s, but each raid was worse than the last. It began to frighten me. In spite of all Chas did to reassure me, and all the confidence I did have in him, I knew all too well how shadows slipped through your hands. He wasn’t in the kind of business that you could keep a grip on. You always had to be ready for anything.
Jordan ParkinsonPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Space Between Suns
Boston 1924 It was the time when we surrendered our lives to the night. When darkness fell over Boston the real world opened her wide, dark eyes and smiled. And she came to mingle with us in overlooked speakeasies full of glitter and gray smoke.
Jordan ParkinsonPublished 3 years ago in Humans