literature

Whether written centuries ago or just last year, literary couples show that love is timeless.

Fernando
The plane takes off and Alicia thinks: finally. A tremor of relief passes through her body when finally courses through her veins. Finally. Elbow against the hard plastic of the seat divider, Alicia looks out the window at the receding shores of Salvador. The docks lining the ancient city port shimmer and wink at her.
By Harel Kopelman5 years ago in Humans
THE IMMORTAL
Walking along a long path of cobble stone and dirt, surrounded by leafy trees full of fruits I had never seen before and smells I found to be aphrodisiacs, as if it was a paradise on earth that my existence had taken for granted. The beauty of that place was so much that it filled my soul as if it were a familiar place, but... how? At what point in life would have I come to a place like this? It made me reconsider the possibility of a past life and the idea of somehow having the power to reincarnate in different bodies while carrying the same soul.
By Raquel Soriano5 years ago in Humans
Finders Keepers
At the end of the rainbow Claire found a pot of gold. It should’ve surprised her more, she thought later, but at the time she just knelt down in the mud, sifting through the coins. The pot looked like it belonged on a box of Lucky Charms.
By Kendra Recht5 years ago in Humans
Pass It On
The damp, gray sidewalk under my feet. A blanket of heavy, gray skies. Gray up above. Gray down below. Gray in front and gray behind. Gray everywhere. A gray sort of day and a gray sort of world.
By AV Carter5 years ago in Humans
Priceless
As the rain bears down un us, huddled close under our umbrellas, we carefully lay the bouquet of local tropical flowers gently on top of the casket. I watch swallowing hard as I hear the thud of the large wooden vessel dropping to its final resting place.
By Heather Herd5 years ago in Humans
Successful Excuses
I walked into the exam room and introduced myself, “Hello, my name is Katie and I will be performing your ultrasound today.” The gentleman on the bed smiled softly and said hello. I explained the exam, and what I needed him to do and then I started. I shook the bottle of warm gel to get the liquid to the tip of the applicator and as I tried to squeeze it, the entire cap flew off and blue ultrasound gel ended up all over both of us. We both sat in shock for a few moments and then laughed nervously, apologizing profusely as I frantically tried to clean both of us up. He just chuckled and said it was truly no problem. Ugh, I was so embarrassed and annoyed. I just wanted to finish this one last patient and go home.
By Katie Yeates5 years ago in Humans
i miss my dad, and the skeletons in his attic
The ladder to the attic groans in protest underneath my mud-caked wingtips, my feet like deadweight as I swivel my body in a precarious dance to leverage another box of Pop’s infamous whatsits against my waist. The man was a closeted hoarder; a survival technique turned obsession that may have served him well when he first left his country to settle here in the States. He always seemed to have two of everything, like our house was Noah’s Ark. Need a pair of jumper cables? Garage, left hand cabinet in front of the Buick. An air fryer? In the living room underneath the floral-print table cover, still in its original box being used as a makeshift coffee table. Maybe he felt more like a pharoah—pillaging the American Dream, padding the inside of his pyramid with appliances that would ward off boredom in the afterlife. The twist at the end is that he passed in the ICU surrounded by entirely new objects, sounds, and people (he had somehow avoided ever going to the hospital in his life). My mom and I, unfortunately, had to say goodbye over the phone. It was the first time he ever used Facetime, and we spent our last conversation with him looking up into his nose and repeatedly reminding him to flip his camera back around. Covid is one hell of a virus.
By star torres5 years ago in Humans
The Hercule-ean Discovery
Kristin drummed her fingers on the choppy wood of the old desk. Dum dum dum. Dum dum dum. Only three hours left of her shift. She pushed back in the leather-bound chair, stretching her arms and arching her back to loosen the tension that came with sitting at the reception desk of the Purdue County Library for six hours a day. She sighed at the empty foyer. The storm outside had kept people away for most of the day - not that she ever saw many people anyway. Being a big, rural place only few of the folks that called Purdue County home had much need for libraries. Purdue was a farming community and Kristin's family was one of the few non-farming families that called it home. Many of the other local teens used the summer months to help their families on the farm while school was out of session. Kristin spun around in her chair and stared at the fluorescent lights beaming along the ceiling. Her mom had been adamant that she picked up a job to keep busy like the rest of her friends, so she put together a quick cover letter and resume (one that consisted of mostly volunteer work) and send it in to three different employers. She had heard back from the library and the ice cream shop. She wondered vaguely if the ice cream shop would have been more her speed but shook off the feeling. Mr. VanderFrost had been so persuasive about the library, offering to pay her double whatever the ice cream shop would have offered. He was a bit of an outsider, choosing to keep to his office all hours of the day, and only offering a polite hello and goodbye to Kristin as walked in and out of the doors. To most, his offer for double profits seemed strange, but Kristin didn’t mind. She needed the money to buy the new iPhone that had been announced this weekend. She stretched at the desk one more time before the crack of thunder outside reminded her that she wasn’t seeing many visitors for the day. Standing up and pushing her chair back, she wandered the stacks slowly, seeking something to read. She browsed the section on 1960s hairstyles, slowed down to read the spines of historical mysteries, but eventually found herself in the detective fiction aisle. Kristin pulled down an Agatha Christie novel, her favorite, and headed back to the front reception desk. She placed the book in front of her on the wood and pulled her chair back before the loud bang of a door and the frightful sound of two men with raised voices berated the quiet peace of the library.
By Haleigh Williams5 years ago in Humans
The Last Page
You almost walk by it. Many probably had. After all, there’s not many who’ll pick up trash that isn’t theirs, even fewer still that would leave the nature trail to do so. You wish you could have said it was good intentions that made you do it but, truthfully, it was curiosity. Plastic bags were, unfortunately, plentiful enough. This one, though, called to you. Maybe it was the way the freezer bag stiffly held itself or maybe it was the past autumn leaves that had been gathered and piled around and on top of it. Something about it lured you over, making you take a closer peek.
By Ms. Annie Nohn5 years ago in Humans
Finders Keepers
Had I known, back then, where my discoveries would lead, I don’t know that I would have ever investigated any further. I would have thrown that damn book as far away as possible.
By E.A. Feld5 years ago in Humans
The Stories We Keep
There were two things I remembered most from my childhood. The first, and the main reason I was paying good money to see a therapist twice a month, was that my parents were incredibly inept at, well, parenting. It seemed they’d had me as some sort of bizarre challenge to fulfill some picture perfect family ideal, but as soon as the high from their achievement wore off, they’d grown bored of me. When silly little me finally figured out they were never really going to be an active part of my life, I found other ways to keep myself occupied. This led me to the second thing I remembered most as a kid.
By Shaw5 years ago in Humans
Little Black Book
The doorbell distracted me from unpacking. I sighed in frustration and went to answer it. What could only be described as a little old lady stood on my doorstep.
By Vanessa T5 years ago in Humans