Kristen Knutson
Stories (10)
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Have I told you? . Honorable Mention in 500 Word Shockwave Challenge. Content Warning.
Your giggle bubbles from your mouth even as you tumble face-first into the soft grass, your wobbly, dimpled toddler legs still unable to keep up with your joy of running through the sunshine. I laugh too, call out to you to be careful. You rise unsteadily, fists clasping mounds of new spring grass and black dirt, which you promptly throw in the air, delighted with the fresh smell, the squiggling earthworms, the small taste of freedom.
By Kristen Knutson9 months ago in Fiction
Sleepwalking. Content Warning.
"You can't go to bed yet," my coworker Christina leans into me, splashing her third martini across my skirt. "Our first session tomorrow isn't until ten. C'mon, one more drink." Her words slur softly together like the snow and sleet falling on this January Chicago night. "Don't call him, babe. It's over."
By Kristen Knutson9 months ago in Fiction
Learning to love my brain . Runner-Up in The Moment That Changed Everything Challenge.
"There is, as I know you have read, no exact test for this, but based on our conversations thus far it feels safe to say that you do likely have ADHD. This doesn't change anything about our sessions, but it does help us find a lens to look at some of the things you've been wanting to address." This is what my counselor says in my second session with her, three months before my 51st birthday.
By Kristen Knutson12 months ago in The Swamp
Forty years of awkward
When I was 7 I wanted to be a Solid Gold Dancer. For those of you not yet receiving letters urging you to join AARP, Solid Gold was music television series and a staple of Saturday night television from 1980-1988. Like other music series of the time, Solid Gold featured musical performances by the artists charting that week. Unlike American Bandstand and Soul Train, Solid Gold didn't have a live audience dancing as though they were in a club, instead featuring heavily choreographed performances by their in-house dancers.
By Kristen Knutson2 years ago in Humans
Stay for a spell
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Driving slowly down the winding, bumpy dirt road to the lakefront and his family cabin, Greg saw the candle in the window and a chill rose up his spine. Strange, he thought, Grandma didn't mention that someone bought the old Meyer cabin. Greg had never known the ancient Meyer cabin to be occupied; touching the crumbing porch and, for the more brazen, peeking in the dirty windows was the source of many a dare between him and his cousins growing up. The dim beams from the truck's headlights didn't offer enough light for him to see if there were any vehicles parked in the overgrown weeds of the dirt driveway.
By Kristen Knutson4 years ago in Horror
