Pen Pricks | Issue No. 9

A Deadly Kind of Love
by Sue Ellis

New parents carefully transported the baby home in a best-rated safety seat with car tires inflated to the proper level. They lovingly swaddled her in a fabric-softened plush blanket manufactured from plastic soda bottles and introduced her to a freshly painted nursery with new carpeting and particle board changing table.

American Way
by Maria Grace

My professor of American Cultural History walks into a bakery in downtown Munich. Every Saturday, he buys two buns and a thick newspaper for his solitary breakfast. He is a liberal. An intellectual. And a grump.

The young woman behind the counter says, "It's a beautiful day. Smile!"

"I don't have to. I'm not American."

BBQ Heaven
by Joe Hendrix

Noah noticed a new BBQ place. He thought that sounded good, whipped around and parked. As he entered, he noticed right off all the red checkered table cloths, and the smell of smoked meat. He thought this must be what Heaven must be like. Then he saw the waitress and knew this must be Heaven.

Beauty in Motion
by Judy Cabito

“The classical arch of her back,” he says, “Near perfect.”

She swings, first with her hips then with her breasts.

Her dainty toes lift up, one then the other, beauty in motion. She practices this and takes the lead.

Saturday he’ll call her his trophy wife when he carries her bag to the first tee.

Birdie
by James Gray

1916, Boston, Birdie was accosted by an older boy.

"Give me your money," he said.

Birdie fidgeted, pockets full of nickels from a day diving for coins cast into the water by ferryboat passengers.

He dropped several coins, then with a roll of nickels wrapped in his fist, bopped the fresh kid's nose.

Blind Love
by Steve Talbert

Blessed with beauty, Kara cursed her curves. While she longed to link with a man on an intellectual level, her boyfriends favored physical couplings. After years of unsuccessful searching, she met a man who could see past her posterior. After an exceptionally engaging engagement, she married William, affectionately known as "Blind Bill" to his friends.

Bloodbath in the Kiddie Pool
by Brian Rosenberger

It was a blistering August day when little Jimmy Wells disappeared. No notes, no ransom, nothing. His mother's complexion was the color of vanilla ice cream, her composure melting as she pointed the police towards the backyard. Water splashed in the plastic pool. The shark smiled, red like a cherry sno-cone, beneath the Summer sun.

First appeared in Crown of Bones.
Copyright © 2008 Brian Rosenberger

Combat Surgeon
by Barry Basden

After operating all night, the surgeon came up out of blood and gore to stand in the morning sunlight.

A sniper, aiming at the red cross, held his breath and slowly squeezed the trigger.

The doctor tumbled back into the sandbagged cellar, living just long enough for someone to take down his last letter home.

Conflict
by Wayne Scheer

Victor Sykes stood and faced the flag when the National Anthem played at his country club, a Memorial Day ritual. But when they asked veterans to remain standing, Victor sat down. He still chose not to be remembered as a Vietnam Veteran.

He wondered how long it would take Iraq veterans to accept their actions.

Death
by Adam Baxter

No response to treatment.

Turn down ventilation. Stop infusions, except morphine.

Multiple organ failure, it won't be long now.

Blood pressure is falling, heart rate halved.

Monitor alarms off. Let him go in peace with family by his side.

Death stands and waits as the lines flatten out.

With a click the lights go out.

Envy
by Browning Lloyd

The season of the birds and bees; flowers and trees. Springtime calls. Joe lives next door; his is fourteen. Mine's just nine. My wife says I should be happy with what I've got. But I see his and I want more. Five extra horsepower moves his riding mower faster, leaving more time for golf.

Exchange Policy
by Doug Mathewson

Uncle Robby's completely crazy. I mean certifiably insane.

So in the park he says, “If I had a dollar for every asshole on the street who tried to sell me a Moulin-Rouge coaster set, I could buy an invisible fishing boat!”

I’ll just keep the coasters, give him my invisible rod and reel instead.

Eyes
by Maureen Murphy

A ghostly wail filled the hall. I hid behind a couch, kneeling in the dust. It was there I found the locket I had lost. Inside it was the picture of my lost lover, dead two years now. I peered above the couch, and found brown eyes gazing at me in thin air. His eyes.

Getting Lucky
by Joe Hendrix

"Chuck, you may get lucky tonight.”

Something like this just doesn't happen to guys like me.

This puppy jumps into my lap, started licking my face.

"What the hell."

"I'm sorry, did Lucky scare you?"

"Lucky? Is a dog?"

“What did you think I was talking about?"

"Nothing, Kim, I knew you meant a puppy."

Golden Achilles
by Pam Hauck

Ryan drove past the food menu to the open window and stopped his truck. He reached out the window and handed the cashier a note.

“Oh my God, we’re being robbed!” she screamed.

The manager rushed to her side, read aloud:

“Hi. I’m deaf. I want a Big Mac, fries, and large Coke. Thank you.”

Grief
by Sue Ellis

A bachelor still, my brother Jake invited me to dinner. Anxious to please, he used his cleanest socks for potholders, carefully cleaned the vegetables and crowded them into the dented, domed-lidded pan with the chuck roast. "I haven't got flour to make gravy," he remembered. We used pancake mix and longed for mother's cooking.

Harness Words
by Bryan Jones

His father fell while welding on the iron skeleton of an office building. The boss claimed his father had forgotten a safety harness. His mother remembered his father saying they hadn’t provided enough. The lawsuit settled, and later, the son sent the boss 100 harnesses along with a note saying no one had ever forgotten.

If Diamonds are Forever, What are Chain Saws?
by Jane Roop

"A falling tree killed him?"

"Yes, sir. I yelled T-I-M-B-E-R!"

"Were you experienced in wood cutting?"

"He gave me a chain saw for Christmas two years ago."

"A strange present to give your wife."

"Yes, sir."

"Is that blonde, Ms. Duvall, motioning to you? She's a divorce attorney."

"No, sir, I wouldn't need one now."

Indecision
by Steve Talbert

Torn between two lovers, Nattie needed to make a decision before one discovered the other. Randy ravished her to ecstasy, but Larry lavished her with gifts. Driven insane by indecision, Nattie shot Randy with a revolver and poisoned Larry with blood thinner. Now, Nattie rots in a cell, while Randy and Larry rot in caskets.

Life
by Crisia Miroiu

One alley, two benches... On the first one is sitting a woman. Young, dressed, smoker, nervous. Probably waiting for someone. On the second one are sitting two women. Old, obsolete, hoary, big spectacles. Slandering their sons and daughters in law.

And I froze thinking that life could be only the route between the two benches.

Man, You Missed a Hell of a Party
by Greg Laughlin

"Someone shouted, ‘Hit the lights, they’re coming.’ So Jacey and me ducked beside the pit. She was giggling an’ all. ‘Ssshhhh,’ someone else says, ‘it’ll spoil the surprise if they hear you.’"

"When the door swung open we all jumped and spit fire. But it was only Satan, and someone was like, ‘Hey, where’s Mark?’"

Marian's Poodle
by Arthur Cronin

Marian made me take her poodle for walks, even though the dog was just a figment of her imagination. She left me because the poodle was attacked by a swan while I was walking him, and she said I didn't do enough to protect the dog. I don't know how she found out about that.

May, Honolulu
by Angela Nishimoto

Flower Leis bestowed with kisses to the graduates important in gowns styled after antiquity. Garlanded up to the eyebrows, hands clasping envelopes, cards and cash, wrists trailing balloons, “YOU MADE IT!” “CONGRATULATIONS!” “WE LOVE YOU!” shiny in the flashes of cameras lovingly aimed, faces forever fresh with possibilities, paths flower-strewn ahead, the beginning of summer.

...Of Little Faith
by James C. Clar

"I will become your apprentice," the candidate holding the dead owl told Anaximenes, "but you must first bring this bird back to life."

Anaximenes laughed. With that the supplicant hurled the dead beast at the master's feet and departed. Anaximenes picked up the owl's body. He spoke one word and the animal's hooded eyes fluttered.

Only an Experiment
by Harriette Spanabel

They came, they seeded the earth, they watched. We are all in a giant test tube, an experiment being conducted by beings from another galaxy. We are not what they had hoped we would be. We are a violent race; our intelligence has not evolved as they thought it would. The experiment will be terminated.

Playing Jacks
by Alice Folkart

When she was little, Ruby liked playing jacks.

She'd bounce her red rubber ball on the rough concrete steps, scrape up the jacks expertly. She was good.

Behind the locked door, her ma entertained gentlemen.

Ruby grew up. Her jacks turned to Johns.

The family business--handed down generation to generation--a fine American tradition.

Second Attempt
by Louise Yeiser

I slid off the bed and felt the solid floor beneath me; so I melted into it, steady. Unfolding to my feet, I crept toward the bathroom, pausing to listen to your breathing, as it whistled and scratched its phlegm into my nerves. The box springs creaked. You were unharmed. I would try again tomorrow.

Secrets and Silence
by Frank Hubeny

Julie insisted secrets were serious betrayals. No matter what, she would avoid them.

She called her fiancé, who was away at work after graduating in January. “Bill and I went to a movie last night. I got lucky.”

After his silence, she wondered if she should risk saying that she loved him before hanging up.

Semantics
by Lauran Strait

Four-year-old Kyle, one of the ring-bearers-to-be, entered the church on the evening of the rehearsal. His six-year-old brother Paul followed. "Look," Kyle said, pointing toward the pulpit, "there's a 'T' on the wall."

"That's not a 'T,' dummy." Paul curled his fingers into a fist, then punched his brother's shoulder. "It's a plus sign, retard!"

Shards
by Jack Healy

She shattered it into diamond-like chips because it interrupted her "mirror, mirror on the wall" with a "you're ugly, witch!" It was not to be a contest between her and her looking glass. The issue was decided: she was the fairest. But the shards cut her feet and she died in a pool of narcissism.

Sleeping Partner
by Joanna M. Weston

Early sunlight stroked Liza’s face and shone red inside her eyelids.

Waves slapped on gravel, gulls screeched. A breeze shifted the grass beside her sleeping bag.

She stretched and felt movement at her waist then shoulder. She stiffened. A garter snake slithered past her face and disappeared with a flick of its tail.

Song of Lament
by Tracy Grimaldi

Mourning doves lie at the base of a feeder, wings spread like flowers covering a casket. Their song of lament rises heavenward, exhuming grief from my heart. Each note of their melody resurrects the pain. Touching the locket around my neck, I lower the blinds, blanketing the room with darkness, burying my sorrow once again.

The Big Day
by John Scanlan

I felt strange, attending church on Wednesday. Pews were packed to the aisles--family, friends, neighbors, wearing their Sunday best. Fresh white flowers illuminating the altar. Mother weeping, father struggling to let go of his little girl. Before the congregation, the priest in black, and Kirsten in her coffin. She was only five years old.

The Escape
by Heather Kuehl

For days he waited. He waited for the guard to feed him, to give him water, to do everything for him. He planned his escape, working until it was finished. While the guard was away, he ran from his prison, hiding when he heard footsteps approach.

“Mom! Fluffy’s missing!” yelled the guard.

The hamster smiled.

The Hero
by Michael Pelc

It was simply the most beautiful of spring days with the rhododendrons and forsythia in full bloom upon the surrounding hillsides. The chaplain stood up and said his eulogy. The young lieutenant presented the flag to the grieving widow. The honor guard fired off a twenty-one gun salute.

And then they covered him with dirt.

The Perfect Outfit
by Michelle Hicks

The pretty white dress was just the right size. When she saw it in the store window, she knew it would be perfect. She bought the matching shoes, and the matching tights, and the matching little hat. Her baby girl would be all ready for church.

The final thing she needed was a matching coffin.

The Prolonging
by David Schembri

"You can walk!"

Her grandfather halted, his face pale with shock. She stormed out, and he stood frozen.

He ran to find her, only to be thrashed to the floorboards.

She broke both of his legs with a sludge hammer.

"I worked double shifts to pay for that wheel chair! I'm going to get my money's worth!"

Tourniquet
by Judy Cabito

He hadn’t considered -- her nursing him -- or staying by his side.

"A miracle," the doctors said.

When he could navigate on his own and defend himself against her beliefs, she reminded him that she’d give him another chance, but next time…not her, or his wife, or anyone would be able to save him.

Waiting for the Thaw
by Richard Badalamente

The temperature dropped so fast that people’s eyes froze opened or closed depending on the instant they blinked--randomness exemplified. We walked through them as they stood like stalagmites in the intersection--jaywalkers nabbed in their lawlessness for eternity. Then the boarding signal came and we left them, waiting forever for the thaw.

Wrong Number
by Kevin M. White

"You'll be dead in the next five minutes," the high pitched voice giggled.

"That isn't funny. Not at all," Mrs. Sherman said, as she sat in her living room. "Damn crank callers."

An explosion of glass and metal made her look outside.

"Oh my," she said, as her neighbor stood in her front yard screaming.

X-Rated Notes
by James Gray

While the eighth grade homeroom teacher took attendance, Karen slipped Billy a note, BASTARD, printed in large bold letters.

Red faced, Billy printed his reply and passed it back to her.

She squealed, looked around, added a big W, correcting his spelling, and gave it to him.

W H O R E, printed on the white paper.

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