100 Words – The Hunt

I finally lost my temper and started yelling at the hunters. I never saw the appeal of the hunt. If you want to kill something, kill it. Don’t make a sport of it. Barbarism in civility’s guise. Even if they were hunting for food, that would be better. Killing, just for the “fun” of it. That’s sick and wrong.

My speech fell on deaf and disinterested ears. They knew there was no recourse or authority opposing them. They were free to do what they want. They told me I only had 9 minutes left of my head start. I ran.

100 Words – Scaredy Cow

Smiley invented the phrase scaredy cow based on a misunderstanding of the word cower. Cow, cower, you see where I’m going. It caused much confusion among his parents and a couple visits to therapists who understood the linguistics and declare Smiley sane.

Smiley’s wife Martha is the only other human to use the phrase. She was very drunk and Smiley was unwilling to have sex at the gas station. It was well past midnight and the gas station was closed. Neither was in any condition to drive and rideshare hadn’t been invented yet. Smiley finally gave in. Glad he did.

100 Words – The River’s Call

Billy was 12 when he first heard the river’s song. His mother saw it in his eyes and was prepared when, at 16, he heeded its call. After that she saw him once a year. Each time his face was carved deeper by weather, adventure and sin.

He’d became a man too soon. His body was hard as a rock and he had the scars to show how often he had to prove it. Sometimes he came home with a broken heart. Sometimes with the clap.

Always older. Always sadder. Always back to the river’s. She buried him at 30.

100 Words – Rowboat

Clyde watched the rowboat drift away along the river. He made little bets in his head on which way it would rotate next. He mostly got it wrong. He expected, or hoped, that it would veer more to the left. But just as it started left, it would jump right, like someone was trying to steer the boat away from the rapids. Though it was the rapids Clyde wanted. Finally it wafted into the coming darkness.

Two days later he was relieved to read that the only finger prints found on the boat belonged to the body found in it.

100 Words – Witness

I watched the children scramble up the hillside. I shouted, hoping that whatever was chasing them would turn its attention to me. I saw nothing else take the hill, but the screams that followed were evidence of my failure.

I tried to talk myself into to calling the police, but knew it would be just like last time. They’d assumed I killed the kids and throw me in jail till the medical examiner came and again described the claw marks that no human could make. Then they’d try to charge me with something else. Eventually letting me go. Not again.