Confession

Jimmy is nervous. His relationship with Susan has developed into something serious. Susan notices Jimmy is shaking.

“What the matter, Jimmy?” Susan asks. Jimmy knows he should tell her the truth sooner or later. It might as well be now. “There’s something about me you don’t know I have to tell you,” said Jimmy.

“What’s that?” Susan inquires.

“I’m a shapeshifter,” states Jimmy.

Susan, who’s in shock, asks Jimmy, “What do you really look like?” Jimmy changes into to his true form. Susan screams. After she calms down she ask him, “What are you awful creatures called?”

“Humans,” replies Jimmy.

From Guest Contributor Denny E. Marshall

B.H.

I swirl around the last dregs of my falsely sweetened coffee. Waiting for something that will cause my pupils to expand, or contract. Something to make me short of breath, to pant. I wait for something to make my palms sweat and tap my feet nervously.

Looking at the last of my coffee, I sigh, exhausted. No longer strong and dark, it has turned milky with too much creamer. I wonder how long something can stay like that.

This is what my life has been reduced to? I cannot remember anything B.H. (before him).

He always made the coffee.

From Guest Contributor Tess Pfeifle

The Best Of Everything

The translators were the most advanced units available. Miranda had insisted on that. Unfortunately, they hadn't been fully tested yet and were still buggy.

As Miranda waited for what Jergen had said to be translated, she glanced about nervously. It was embarrassing to have all eyes focused on the two of them while they waited for the machine. Perhaps her father had been right, and the old translator would have been the better choice.

But it was her wedding day and she deserved to have the best of everything.

Now the priest was speaking more gibberish. Miranda wanted to cry.

Complacency

When the alarm sounded, most of us were in the break room. We didn't need to check the bulletin board to know we were to exit through the rear stairwell. Even so, we took our time evacuating.

The post office had been receiving bomb threats for years. When I was first hired, I was constantly nervous, but over time I'd realized we weren't in any real danger. No more than everyone else, anyway.

Today was different. Today there really was a bomb. Perhaps if we'd hurried, the death toll wouldn't have been so high. Perhaps I'd still have my legs.