Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Good to See You Again
Recently, I came across a hard drive from college. I found some of the pieces I had for creative writing workshops, thinking maybe it would nice to share it with the world. This is the only piece that seemed worth the light of day, a short story I wrote in my first year as a creative writing student
By Nathan J Bonassin5 years ago in Families
My teenager banished me to the dark corner...
It was 7p.m. on a Friday night and I got the pleasure of sitting at Fly Trampoline while my 13-year-old gets to be a teenager. In my 'hey-day', I think the thing to do was go to the local roller-skating rink. There are no roller-skating rinks here in Fairbanks, Alaska...so it is a fun filled night of neon lighting, pounding music, and a bunch of 10–16-year old's jumping on large squares of woven polypropylene material, connected by coiled steel springs in the dark. What can possibly go wrong in this situation?
By Rose Loren Geer-Robbins5 years ago in Families
Better Than it Seems
This was a day like no ordinary day. I had awakened before my alarm, which never happens. I felt happy, I had just been in a whirlwind of depression. The closest person to me was gone, but not by death you see, by war. Our country is at war and my dad was thousands of miles across the seas and I was here. He has been gone for 6 months now and there is no news on when he will be able to come back. You may be thinking “don’t you have your mom?” Well, no, I do not have her. She left when my dad was taken away. I mean yes, she is here but not really so I guess you can understand how I fell into a whirlwind of depression. But today was different I never wanted to go to school but I felt like I had to go. Dad used to drive me to school it was like our little time together. See I was not like your normal teenager, who locked themselves in their bedroom and wanted nothing to do with their parents. I loved family time but the rides to school were extra special because dad would always tell me some clever little riddle that would always end with the saying “things are always better than they seem.” Up until this point I believed him. Now that dad was gone, I had to walk to school and every step made me miss him more and more.
By shanae curtis5 years ago in Families
To All the Stuffed Ones I've Loved Before
Green check gingham-patterned frog is perched ever smiling on my window ledge, reminding me of how fantastic life is. After snatching up said frog on impulse from a thrift store, I neglected to give this stuffed beacon of eternal joy a name but arbitrarily assigned him a gender. His assignment was simple: 1. Be forever cute and lovable. 2.Retain softness and remind me to smile (whenever he could get my attention.)
By The Dani Writer5 years ago in Families
An Unexpected Gift
It has been 3 years since I’d last seen my father, alive and well in person. It’s been 7 days since I’d received the phone call that he was dead, 2 days since I’d watch them lay him to rest in the ground, and an hour sitting in his hardly used office sorting through the mess of his life.
By Mandy Raquel5 years ago in Families
Family is everything
It was about 1:30 in the morning when he came into this world, the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, feet first, and fighting for his life. Jason was the third attempt at childbirth by his mother, and for some strange reason, he survived. The first would’ve been about 10 years of age , the second, oh about 15 to 16years of age, but aside from all of that Jason survived. Around his 14th birthday he began to see images in his sleep about a little black rectangle, stuck behind a wall. He would knock a hole in the wall, reach in for the object, but he always appeared too imbedded for him to move. No matter how he pulled, and tugged, no matter what he used to try to pry the thing out, it just wouldn’t move, and the very moment it seems as if it were coming loose, he would wake up with the fading image of the little black rectangle in his head for the rest of his day. Years went by and for the love of everything he had known Jason just could not figure out why he continued to have these “dreams” about the rectangle. Was it some strange message meant to turn his life upside down?!, was it some mysterious sign of something coming his way?!, or was he actually crazy enough to see this “ thing” for no obvious reason at all?! How could he find out, and who could he even begin to try and confide in to see if some inkling of sense would be made of it all?! Perplexed, Jason considered the fact that maybe there was more to this “mystery” shape than met the eye, and he had better start taking more “interested” approach to the matter. After all, he was 40 years old now, and in the midst of everything life could have to offer, or give for that matter, this wretched “rectangle” would simply not go away from his thoughts, nor dreams, and it was time to get to bottom of this whole “Pandora rectangle” thing, he had enough. On his way one morning to a “shrink’s” office that was recommended by a friend, of a friend, of a friend, Jason was distracted by a small black rectangular shape that seemed to move through city scape with him as he drove downtown to meet this “ Doctor” and could not resist the urge to actually see if that indeed was the case, and little did Jason know that was exactly what it was, he was being followed. It felt as if the “object was calling to him, beckoning him to find its place of rest, and see what was in store for him. It was at that particular moment Jason made the decision to answer the call, and find his precious rectangle, that had plagued his dreams and visions for most of his life, it was time to put an end to not knowing jut what this mysterious shape was. Having no known family throughout his adult life was one of the other things in his life that seemed to enter and exit his thoughts randomly it seemed, just like the little black rectangle did , ever and over again. Jason had no known living relatives, and going throughout life watching other people with their families, and hearing the conversations about who was bringing what to the family reunion this year, and who’s house they going to for Sunday dinner rang in his ears day in and day out, forcing Jason to yearn for family of his own, only to end up with more people in his life that were “like” family, until. Jason, in his persistent search for the little black rectangle, ventured off into a part of the city he normally steered clear of, the “south side”, everyone hated the south side, and Jason was none the different. In an alley, about two blocks long itself, aand about as wide as three tractor trailers, he noticed a small black corner of something protruding out of what appeared to be a wall of of some sorts. The closer Jason got to the object the more and more he felt as if he were falling asleep, it made him feel as if he had finally found “it”, the rectangle, the enigma that antagonized him his whole adult life, and then it hit him, like a flash of light from one of those cheap drugstore cameras with the overly bright flash, it wasn’t just some black rectangle, it wasn’t just some strange vision Jason was having, in fact what he saw this time, was a little black book. He began to look around for something he could use to get it free from the dilapidated structure and located an old crowbar which he used to carefully break and remove the debris surrounding it, when he finally had it in his hands, he turned it over after dusting it off and read the title out loud in an overwhelming wave of tears, it said, Jason’s family!
By David A Rodriguez5 years ago in Families
The Greatest Treasure
I love summer storms. Curled up with my blanket, I close my eyes and listen to the rain pouring down in the darkness of my backyard. Wetness slowly creeps along the concrete floor towards where I sit under the little covered porch enjoying a glass of whatever red was open. My little people are finally asleep and I’m grateful to have a bit of quiet time tonight. I take a deep breath then exhale slowly, partly to take in the smells of summer that are slowly turning to fall but mostly to expel the weight of adulting I’ve been carrying for the last while. I rarely feel sorry for myself but sometimes I mourn the loss of what I thought my life would be before it became what it is.
By Jacqueline Grisé5 years ago in Families
Blue Ink
Papa Carlisle had been a man of systems. He said life should work like a train—one station leading to another, on a schedule. With order came reliability, and with reliability, happiness. That year I lived with him and grandma, he’d wake up every day at 6am and brew a pot of coffee. With a mug, two cigarettes, and the paper, he took the elevator down to the lobby and sat at a table under the awning out front. From his seat, the fifteen story high rise he managed ran straight toward the sky, like it was barely there. But I remember on those drives to Silver Spring, it towered over the strip malls and office buildings on Georgia Ave. He’d read the headlines, the sports page, then came back upstairs to set his book, leaning on the kitchen counter over a calculator, his reading glasses sliding down his nose.
By David E. Yee5 years ago in Families
The measure of a life
When Mrs. Bedrosian died, she left Sophie her cat. Sophie wasn’t entirely sure if it was a gift or a punishment. They had not been especially close, although Sophie had always been friendly to her in the hallways, and on the stoop. She always tried to be a nice neighbor.
By Olivia Newman5 years ago in Families
The Little Black Book
“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Elisa! Happy Birthday to you!” with a deep breath Elisa blew out her red candles on a round chocolate cake and made a wish. “What did you wish Elisa?” asked her parents, but she refused to tell them or else it would not come true, so she believed.
By Grace Thomas 5 years ago in Families
