MIRAGE

They’d been in the car for hours. Carly woke to the smell of eggs, and her tummy rumbled. She’d been dozing off and on in the back seat, under her favorite Dora blanket because the air conditioning made the car so cold. She rubbed her eyes, calling out.

“Mom?”
“Oh, sweetie…you’re awake. Are you hungry?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you want some of this?”

Mom gestured to the Tupperware container on the console between the front seats. Hard boiled eggs and cold fried chicken. Every long road trip, they were the staples. And every long road trip, Carly’s answer was the same.

“Yuck! No!”

Mom sighed. “I didn’t think so,” she said. Then she reached between her legs on the floor and pulled out a small, hot pink lunch bag. “There’s a peanut butter sandwich in here for you. Here, take it.”

Carly leaned forward to grab it, her eyes taking in the dry, flat land and endless brush on the sides of the road. That’s when she saw it.

“Dad! Watch out!!!” Continue reading →

[This was short story I wrote a few years ago for a competition – and for fun, as well]

If only she would stop screaming.

You’d think the crowd would drown her out – their jeering and cheering feeding off her screams like a frenzy of wild animals ripping at a carcass. That kind of unholy shrieking cuts right to the bone and you feel it as much as you hear it. Soon, the screams became weaker. Either she’d lost her voice for the screaming, or the life was finally, mercifully fading from her. Either way, she was growing silent, and the crowd was getting bored. Soon, they would be restless and the cycle would start again, whipping into a frenzy as the tortured screams peeled a track down your spine.

Eve was next.

The guard yanked her up by the thick rope binding her wrists, pulling her along as the crowd began to buzz behind her, coming to life again. They stopped abruptly in front of the magistrate, a portly man with a contemptuous demeanor, who obviously thought himself some sort of demi-god. He gave the papers in his hand a cursory glance.

“Goody Brubaker? Are you aware of the charges laid against you this day?”

“Yes.”

Continue reading →