literature
Whether written centuries ago or just last year, literary couples show that love is timeless.
Synchronicity
Part 1: He He waits for sleep to take him. He feels the passing of time. He knows he will see her again. This way, he is honest with his desires. His dreams are doorways into his soul. He feels her. Every night he can hear her voice, press his body into hers, and merge with her. He looks into her eyes and sees himself. He knows she’s out there. He knows she’s real. He doubts himself often, then convinces himself he’s right. His identity is changing. He’s wanting to become someone else. Correction: he wants to become his highest self. He’s never cared for money, but suddenly feels the need to have it, and save it. He’s always loved his parents but doesn’t want to be responsible for them. He’s always allowed himself to be used for his talents and made a career out of other people’s intentions. He’s more than that. He knows there is a chance that he will never meet her, this siren, this goddess who mysteriously knows all of him. He’s never met her, never even once known anyone that resembled her. It’s always her in his dreams. Always. He is restless. He is passionate and angry and sad and longs for something he cannot name. Bigger than affection, bigger than compatibility, deeper than love, stronger than desire, everything unnamed that dwells inside. He wants all of it. Right now. He has always been alone. Even when he is surrounded by people, he has never known anyone to understand his being like she does. This is torture. He is falling in love with a fantasy. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care. He needs her, this is all he knows. Sleep takes him. He sees her. For these hours, he is home.
Ahlorah MorganPublished 3 years ago in HumansA Spot by the Sea
On the corner of 10th and Cherry street there stood a mystery that called to me in my youth. Where many eyes would pass with haste, I spotted something in my unhurried curiosity at the young age of eleven. Behind a row of cottonwoods, if one waited for the wind to blow, you could see the narrow peak of a house, and a single circular window. From the first moment I laid eyes upon it, I was fascinated by it. Its mystery beckoned to me.
Emily Savannah BrakePublished 3 years ago in HumansSomeone Who Cares
Earnest rolls out of the left side of his bed. The right side has been blocked off with emotional red tape. He sits hunched over the left edge, digging the drying eye goo deeper into his eye crevices. Snap, crackle, pop and he’s up. He shoves his smartphone into his basketball short’s pocket, before heading over to the kitchen where he will pop the K-cup into the Keurig. The machine whirs to life and Earnest mentally berates himself for contributing to the global environmental crisis.
Arianna IrwinPublished 3 years ago in HumansWelcome to the Interdimensional Convenience Store
“Sir,” I said. “Sir, you can’t do that.” A large lyrebird, which was currently eating straight from a cereal box two aisles over, looked up. He trained his beady eyes on me and cocked his head to the side. He crushed a piece of cereal with his talons. I flipped to the next page of the fashion magazine I was reading.
Taylor LarsonPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Envelope
She sighed heavily and leaned her head back in the seat as the train rocketed forward on the track. She had a window seat, and if there had been anyone to wave to she was sure she’d have been looking out the window – smiling and waving like a fool.
A Great Deal Better
"You look so much like her. I think we can pull it off," Arlo insisted. Lydian stared at the weathered black and white photo Arlo found tucked in the back pocket of the notebook he took from their elderly neighbor. The photo was of a young woman with a dark, curly bob and pale eyes reclining on a sofa. Lydian was struck by the way the woman stared at the camera, or rather through the camera, like she was gazing into the eyes of her lover.
Amy JokinenPublished 3 years ago in HumansRuthie
It was just after 7:30am when Sophie Thompson’s phone went off. Barely awake, she looked at the time and thought that’s not my alarm… She looked closer to see a text from her boss.
Fairground Attraction
It was our first date and, as if we weren't in our fifties but in our teens, we headed down the shore from different New Jersey towns to go on the rides, play Skee-Ball, and make out on the beach. Kids, dogs, jobs--a night at Seaside had not happpened in our lives for decades. Is there anything better than sliding across the vinyl seat of the Himalaya and being caught in a boy's arms while you're both laughing?
Donna RaskinPublished 3 years ago in HumansUnearthed
Rika packed her small black notebook and pen into the pocket of her radiation suit - gearing up to go outside for her weekly scavenge for life above ground. She took a quick look around her small cell, at the small bed in the corner, the bookshelf that only held small treasures she'd found outside, and at the rug she'd fashioned out of moss. The compound was more like a prison than a home - at least that's what her grandmother had told her when she was young. Rika had spent all of her life living underground since she'd been born after the war and was only allowed to go to the surface once a week to avoid prolonged exposure to potential radiation. The war had happened when her grandmother was young and only lasted a couple of weeks since the nukes had been deployed from almost every country that had them, but the after effects lasted well beyond that. It had already been 50 years since the end of world war three.
Courtney HendricksonPublished 3 years ago in HumansLittle Black Book
Ivy made herself a coffee and began cleaning her apartment from the night before. She tidied the papers on her coffee table so she could sit and read her morning newspaper. She discovered a leather-bound black book. She knew this was not hers and assumed it had been left by someone the night before.
Jenna JonesPublished 3 years ago in HumansOff the Dock
The water on the lake was smooth as glass when Gabby and her husband Ben made their way down to the shoreline to fish. The plan was to waste some time while waiting to meet up with Ben’s crazy family for a laid back action packed afternoon and evening. The week long founding celebration the town put on each summer was something she always looked forward to. Even before she got married. Somehow after she and Ben got together it became tradition to spend the day with his family at the lake and fight over which spot to anchor the boat from to have an optimal view of the fireworks. It was honestly one of her favorite annual traditions. There was also the festival food which could be found in various spots around the lake and in the last couple years, on food boats floating in between. The food consumption may be regretted tomorrow. Or not. Because festival food is delicious, evil and should be enjoyed to the fullest when one faces it. Gabby was prepared to take the hit when the time came.
Kerry LettelleirPublished 3 years ago in HumansThe Mysterious Mailbox Message
Ernest never meant to become a gravedigger. But then again, he thought, it’s not the kind of thing anyone ever means to become. He wiped his forehead with the damp cloth he always kept in his back pocket, and sat back on his heels to reexamine the little, black notebook on the ground.
Katie IronoxidePublished 3 years ago in Humans