Unforgettable Short Stories Complied by: B Rojas Examples of "Flash Fiction" -entire short stories in one paragraph, or less culled from various sources: --- Think about it for even one moment, then try not cry when you read this one- True Love Today, after I watched my dog get run over by a car, I sat on the side of the road holding him and crying. And just before he died, he licked the tears off my face. --- Unexpected Today, after a 72 hour shift at the fire station, a woman ran up to me at the grocery store and gave me a hug. When I tensed up, she realized I didn’ t recognize her. She let go with tears of joy in her eyes and the most sincere smile and said, “On 9-11-2001, you carried me out of the World Trade Center.” --- Try to get this one out of your head- (very slightly edited) Never Say Die Thunder crashed as he climbed up the stairs. She still hadn’t returned. He’d worry, but that took too much effort. He slowly opened the door to their room. Her errands didn't usually take this long. He opened the door to the bath, and then decided not to take one. He was alone in the house – no one would smell him. He pulled his shirt off, and undid his pants. ‘She’ ll be back tomorrow’ he thought as he lay in bed next to her corpse. ‘She ’ll be back.
--- Somewhat edited- Why? She loved him for this. His blatantly primitive refusal to join the rest of the world. She'd stayed by him through it all and he knew that no matter how fierce the fight, she would not abandon him. Not even for something he did in a desperation. Not even when she heard answers she did not want to hear. There is no going back. --- slightly edited- Waited just a little too long Today, we were supposed to meet in the park. But instead I met her in the hospital’s intensive care unit. And as I sat beside her bed and staring at her unconscious body hooked up to all the breathing equipment, I reached into my pocket, pulled out the diamond engagement ring that I was going to give her... --- edited- A woman's dilemma She is puzzled at first. Then, as a last resort, she hit upon an expedient which it was strange that no one had thought of before..... --- nano-story pieced together from five unrelated sources The Fight "I really don't think you should interfere." "When do you suppose they'll stop?" "The thing is, you can never really tell." "This is going to be bad, I tell myself with great unoriginality." "It was one of those unexpected things that happen in politics." --- The answer you had been looking for all of your life She switched the channel again just when they were going to show..... --- Ernest Hemingway's micro-short story- For sale, baby shoes, never worn. --- Imperfect Friends I wouldn’t trade a single one of them for all the perfect friends in the universe. --- Memories you never had Today, after telling my grandmother that I didn’t want to risk making such a huge mistake, she looked at me and said, “Looking back on it all, there are so many mistakes I wish I had had the courage to make when I was your age.” --- fragment of a much longer story that says it all... The Search is Over It was beginning to get dark. He was about to give up his quest when he stopped at a tombstone in the cemetery. It said: To my Beloved Edith 1900-1947 Rest in Heaven -------------------------------------- not a short story but a very short lesson in philosophy- Ecclesiastes for People who like to Complain The Winner is always a part of the answer; The Loser is always a part of the problem. The Winner always has a program; The Loser always has an excuse. The Winner says, "Let me do it for you;" The Loser says, "That's not my job." The Winner sees an answer for every problem; The Loser sees a problem in every answer. The Winner says, "It may be difficult but it's possible;" The Loser says, "It may be possible but it's too difficult." ----------------------------------------------- actual -but very short, short story The Mountain By: Meir Liraz There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains. The lowlanders didn't know how to climb the mountain. They didn't know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn't know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain. Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home. The men tried first one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet. Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below. As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby's mother walking toward them. They realized that she was coming down the mountain that they hadn't figured out how to climb. And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back. How could that be? One man greeted her and said, "We couldn't climb this mountain. How did you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn't do it?" She shrugged her shoulders and said, "It wasn't your baby." -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
