True-life fiction Maggie knocks gently outside her daughter’s bedroom door. “Can I come in?” The sixteen-year-old shouts, “No!” “Come on! Pretty please with sprinkles on top?” Nothing. Maggie rests her hand on the doorknob. Should I turn it and enter, breaking our house privacy rule? Is this a matter of…

Q. Do doctors adhere to “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) orders? A. Not if you override it while you’re in cardiac arrest. I stood at my mother’s bedside trying to soothe her, telling her everything would be all right. From her hospital room, I could see the sun setting over Tampa Bay. How many times had my mother watched that spectacular event since she and my dad moved to Florida in 1974? …

BEWARE, MY SWEET! If my mother were alive today she’d be horrified to know that her recipe for Toffee Squares has been corrupted by the Hershey’s chocolate company. The company keeps reducing the size of the large bar while simultaneously making it look similar. Tricky! Back in the day, the…

Flash Fiction The bridge to where the wedding vows would take place was suspended above water located in a tropical enclave of Hawaii. At one end of the bridge, the bride could see her future husband at the other end waiting for her to come to him. Once she reached…

What not buying water at the airport might mean for you Recently I flew from Los Angeles (LAX) to Detroit (DTW); a five-hour flight. Fortunately, and you’ll see why in a minute, I arrived well before boarding time. As a frequent traveler, I’ve started carrying an empty water bottle through…

Flash Fiction Leticia is dressed in black with white pearls and low-heeled pumps. She’s at a funeral lunch after all. She’s relieved the long service is over, the dead woman, a distant relative of a friend, has been eulogized, blessed and buried. She can’t wait to quench her thirst with…

A short story — “I know I’m not the first woman to give birth to a kid who may as well have had skis strapped to his feet.” Standing on the frozen shore surveying the ice shanties on the sun-glared lake before me, I think back to how my friend Eleanor shot out her three babies like a Pez dispenser while I labored through delivering one who might as well have had skis strapped to his feet. My…

Flash Fiction by Nancy Yuktonis Solak — Stirred toward wakefulness, Sarah’s dreams fracture into feathers, fluttering out of her head as swiftly as geese fly at the sound of a hunter’s shot. She strains to recapture them, sensing the loss of something important. As they scatter into space, one feather slowly drifts back to her. Relief. …