General
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Based on Actual Events My name is Willie Gardner and I got a story to tell y’all. Not like one a them book stories, more like news an shit. Maybe I should call that news lady that’s on the TV all the time talkin bout shit that happens in all them other places. Ain’t nothin…
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A Watertown Short Story Kavin Macy was Watertown’s best hitter. He wasn’t a bad first baseman either. Teams from all over the county visibly cringed when they played the Watertown team. Not because the other teams were so horribly bad. No. It was because Watertown had themselves a Bonafide, major league hitter. Each and every…
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I sat beneath the elm, wishing you hadn’t left. The moon cast a silvery glow upon my face. For so long, I watched you, moving in and out of your life without a single hint of my presence. I was there with you when you drove to his house. I was with you when you…
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The origin of this story began some years ago. I had written several different versions of it, mostly short stories that summarized life in a small town. Having been born in a small town myself, I found it easy to put the vision into words. What I needed was a central character. One night after…
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Prelude Black Creek, Indiana. 1884 “Father!” she cried again. “Lucy!”Silence.Then—A shift. Breathing. She sensed a change. Very close.A whisper brushed the back of her neck.From beyond the door came movement—slow footsteps across stone. Soft leather. Deliberate. Waiting.Metal scraped metal as the lock disengaged. The door shuddered as it was released from within. Marigold stepped back,…
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It wasn’t quite noon when the doors flew open and three strangers stepped into the luxurious lobby of the Sutherland Hotel. They were well dressed and appeared to be gentlemen; unlike most of the dusty ruffians that would often visit the nearby saloons and taverns. The Sutherland, as it was referred to, at the very…
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The world is a pressurized mass of dense magnetic particles, tumbling through the universe blindly, without a notion of their trajectory. With a single commonality…they are all searching for the same thing: instant gratification. No more substance. Gone is the gloriously attenuated intellectual conversation. We sit at the dinner table and fork through a pound…
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Every night I wake up from the same terrible nightmare. I realize that it sounds cliche, but it’s true. It starts out benign enough. I’m sitting in a chair reading. I don’t recognize the room that I’m sitting in, but it appears that I live there. The curtains are drawn from all the windows, and…
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The city was bursting with energy. For the first time in as long as I can remember, there was a smile on my face. Nothing joyful, I mean I wasn’t celebrating anything. I was simply content. Content with my life and my place in the world, and content with the task set before me. Interesting,…
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Chapter 1 Toby was a good kid at the beginning. How evil can a newborn baby really be? Don’t answer that. His parents, Tina and Carl, loved him as if he was their own. No matter how hard they tried, Carl and Tina were unable to have children. Adoption was their only choice. They jumped…
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When I woke, there was a knife in my hand. Not bloody, thank goodness, but dirty. Like it had been used to dig a hole in the backyard. I don’t recall needing a hole dug, but if I did I wouldn’t use a kitchen knife. I noticed that the knife, although a peculiar thing, was…
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The rain falls merciless on the thatch of the thin roof. Sleep will not come now, though I never expected it to. The rain brings pain and torment in cold, liquid rage. The drapes are open at the window near my humble bed, and I catch a glimpse of your face as the torrent crashes…
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We are all faced with difficult and often arduous choices. Unfortunately, many of these choices are presented to us without fault rather than made organically. We struggle to make the right choice; wondering, and praying that the path we are on is the right one, or at the very least, the right one for us.…
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The heat is relentless. There’s no sun due to the cloud coverage but you could fry an egg on the sidewalk. A young girl of 8 years skates up and down the street with her friends. It’s summer vacation and the neighborhood is full of laughter. Backyard barbecues and swimming pools had replaced spelling tests…
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The walls were off-white but not on purpose, and not for any psychological reason either. They were white because they didn’t care. The room was just as insignificant: a single bed, and a toilet. The floor was a shade of gray that hadn’t been used in decades. The single florescent light that hung from the…
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The light enveloped me and covered me like warm rain on a hot summer day. I felt renewed in its glow. Awkwardly, I reached out to touch it and felt its warmth radiate through me as if the light had touched me in return. I quickly retracted, nervous and wary that I would spoil something…
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Flat Rock was a small town. I suppose it still is. I haven’t been there in years; not since I was taken away to live with my grandparents. From what I can still remember, Flat Rock was the perfect place to be a kid. Every summer we would swim out at South Fork Creek. Then…
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Kavin Macy was Watertown’s best hitter. He wasn’t a bad first baseman either. Teams from all over the county visibly cringed when they played the Watertown team. Not because the other teams were so horribly bad. No. It was because Watertown had themselves a Bonafide, major league hitter. Each and every time young Kavin Macy…
Brian Kelly Irons 