humanity

For better or for worse, relationships reveal the core of the human condition.

The Interview
Squeezing through the throng of people ambling their way down the overcrowded underground, I manage to push my way ahead onto the train. Hot breath on my neck makes me shudder and cringe, and elbows in my side cause me to flinch. We’re packed tightly together like sardines in a can, more or less humanely. We’re all going to the same place, too. Today is the day we travel to The Hive for the interview.
By Annelise Eklund5 years ago in Humans
The Hermit's Fortune
Stanley Bosko’s house is made up of normal things, but thrown together it all seems just a little bit removed from reality. Returning has felt like walking into a place frozen in time while also falling headfirst into one of those I Spy books from my childhood.
By Rooney Morgan5 years ago in Humans
Mystery on Shell Road
There is always something exciting about the first warm day of the spring season. Amy woke up knowing today would be that day. She mentally planned her entire day around making sure she could take a walk on the beach, before even getting out of bed. ‘Time for myself? Tall order these days. Gramps has become almost a full time job’ she thought to herself as her feet touched the tile floor, still damp and cool from the morning. Stretching, she reached over and pet her dog, Lubo. “Lets do it bud”, she half yawned as she made her way to the closet.
By Ashley Lane5 years ago in Humans
Hailey's Revival
It was colder in the tent tonight. The concrete was especially hard as It was the first day of winter in Seattle. A twenty-four-year-old Hailey Sullivan was living on the sidewalk under the overpass down the street from the three bedroom house she grew up in. Her mother died of Covid last year and she spent the small sum of insurance money on a proper burial for her. When there was nothing more she could do, a kind Sheriff named Jimmy knocked on the door one afternoon and secured the padlock on the door handle as she said goodbye to life as she’d known it.
By Stasi Grant5 years ago in Humans
Signs in the Sky
What is your zodiac sign? I am a Virgo by birth but in actuality I believe my sign is leaning more towards a Leo. I think the role of the zodiac can teach us a lot about ourselves and our attitudes. If you really want to figure out your birth chart, try downloading an app called “Co-Star”. This plots down a summarization of things of where you are placed in the zodiac chart as well of your signs in comparable to the Solar System. As far as I am concerned, the chart will need the time and place of your birthday.
By LAiney Bee5 years ago in Humans
For someone who needs it,
“They’re vultures!” The woman’s aged voice whispered and creaked like a draught through the once splendid home that threatened to slide apart around them. Her hand instinctively caught her layers of pearls and gold strings at her neck as though it gave her strength to proceed. Her figure tucked back into her high upholstered chair. Thin delicate fingers lightly entwined the necklaces as her eyes darted away from her guest and to the fireplace in deep thought.
By B Elliott5 years ago in Humans
Exmarks
Michael was an optimist who had done everything by the book. He listened attentively in class and achieved notable grades with his average talent. He secured a comfortable job where his dependability became the cornerstone of the department. Each day was faced with an outlook of positive expectation which for the most part, was fulfilled. As a skilled counter of blessings, he wasn’t too perturbed at being single when the early stage of middle age was broached. He was sure it would work out in the end, it usually did and fussing about it wasn’t going to help. Even when informed of the nascent dilemma of a growth in his intestine, he still went about his day. Whether it was helping out at the local shelter doling out servings of hot food or furniture shopping, Michael made an effort to keep to routine.
By dennesque5 years ago in Humans
Remy's Unexpected Coffee Night With A Stranger
"All of these stupid books are the same," Remy rolled his eyes as he picked up the books. "It's all don't buy Starbucks coffee and stop using Netflix. It's like they don't know how hard it is to live in the twenty-first century!"
By Alfie Jane5 years ago in Humans
What is she writing?
There she is again, just like everyday before last. I find her to be so odd, always in that knit hat. I think she that has such a lack of purpose to be here. She is always alone but I see her sit over there on that bench watching the children play. Why does she do this, she does not have a child here? There are only 4 children here and they are mine. Everyday she sits there and will write in that little black book. What is she always writing?
By Buffie Peterson (Angelsoulbp)5 years ago in Humans
Little Black Book
It was a Sunday; the last day of the garage sale season and Rowen wasn’t going to let it go to waste. She rolls out of bed and rushes through her morning routine, eager to get a jump start on the day. She grabs her notepad to check her to-do list.
By Sarah Noel5 years ago in Humans
Stories of the 6
It’s 7 a.m. and Louis starts his day with a black coffee and a cigarette as he slowly struts to his Manhattan bound 6 train. What surrounds him at home is vastly different from what he sees throughout the day at his locksmith job in midtown. Day in and day out he falls deeper and deeper into the repetitive nature that is the normal 9-5. That was until one evening, on his hour long train ride back to his apartment in Hunts Point. He witnessed a gentleman, slender and a bit unkempt, sketching with his ballpoint into a moleskine notebook. Louis didn’t think much of it, but he did notice this gentleman’s tendency of looking around the subway car briefly and proceeding to scratch his ballpoint back into the pages of his moleskine notebook. As the 6 train pulled into a station the gentleman hastily got up and left the car. Louis noticed the moleskine notebook on the seat just before the doors closed and as he sat up to yell for the gentleman, the doors closed. Louis picked up the book and put it in his backpack thinking he may run into the slender gentleman again. Louis looked for the gentleman day after day hoping to see him again to return his journal. A week goes by with no sighting. Louis decides to see what it is that this slender gentleman was scratching so rapidly into his moleskine notebook. Upon opening the first page he is looking at beautiful life like renderings of train riders in the subway. As he looks at page after page, he digests the blue ink. Captivated by the subtle beauty of what this gentleman was seeing through his eyes, he gets to the middle of the book where he found himself. Louis looked at himself and saw what the slender gentleman had seen; pain, but captured in a beautiful way.
By Joseph Bandalos5 years ago in Humans
embracing broken
In the future there are no meetings. No zoom calls, conference calls, agendas designed to fill time and space but not actually achieve anything. In fact in the future meetings have been outlawed and when citizens are found violating this mandate and abusing the laws of time and space they are subjected to an extremely heavy fine, public ridicule, and their name goes in to the book. That is the punishment dreaded most in the society of the future, for though it looks innocent- like a typical small black notebook- it is anything but. For you see your name in the book means one thing only and that is that you are no longer allowed into the upper echelons of society- echelons that are out of reach to most but all aspire to- the place where you no longer have to worry about the laws of time and space. The place where true freedom and beauty exist. The place where all access is controlled by the holder of the little black book. She alone is the ultimate creator of privilege and equally admired and feared by all. But this story is not about that space- this story is about me and how I came to be sitting in the living quarters of the holder of the black book sipping wine and lounging in the most comfortable chair I have ever sat in.
By Jen Haggard5 years ago in Humans