Safety In The North

We hug the coastline, the water lipping and lapping, squeezing us against scrub brush and pink granite boulders. Sophie stomps her feet in plops of seafoam eddying in the tide pools. We let her play. So much has been lost. But not this. Her innocence glinting in the sunlight, giggles clutching our heartbeats. We safeguard this last remnant, this singular, unsullied, untarnished, vestige. Otherwise, what is it all for? Trudging at night beneath ribbons of greenish-blue light, the auroras coxswaining us toward safety in the northern hemisphere. We press ahead. Agents two days behind at most. Our precious cargo intact. From Guest Contributor Karen Schauber

Karen’s flash fiction appears in over 100 international journals, magazines, and anthologies with nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction and the Wigleaf Top 50. Schauber curates Vancouver Flash Fiction – an online resource hub, and in her spare time is a seasoned family therapist. Read her at: KarenSchauberCreative.weebly.com

Super Man

“I vacuumed and mopped,” Andy said to his wife, Michelle.

“Really?” Michelle replied, looking up from scrubbing the upstairs toilet.

“Yes,” Andy beamed. “And you didn’t even have to ask.”

“Fantastic,” Michelle said before turning back to attack the porcelain with a scrub brush. “Your award ceremony will be on ESPN tonight at seven.”

“Cool!’ Andy said, and he took his cellphone to the downstairs bathroom to catch up on Facebook. Thirty minutes later when he flushed for the second time, he was starting to wonder if Michelle had been joking.

He decided to set the DVR just in case.

From Guest Contributor John Sheirer

John is an author and teacher who loves living in New England. His most recent book is Fever Cabin, a fictional journal of a man isolating out of fear of COVID-19 who confronts his life choices. Proceeds benefit virus relief organizations. Find John at JohnSheirer.com