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“The Symphony” by Eva Sylwester

Posted on September 24, 2012 by writer

Character: Police station clerk
Action: Tightening a knot
Setting: A meeting for a subversive group
Prop: Decorative songbirds made from vinyl records

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The Symphony

by Eva Sylwester

Rose was tightening a knot on her necktie in the locker room, checking herself out in the mirror. She was eighteen and cute, and she knew it. The retirement home management made even the girl servers wear neckties, and that just made her look even cuter than usual.

On her way to the dining room to wait for the residents, she glimpsed the food the cooks had ready in big metal pans. All the boxes and cans around the kitchen said SYSCO, like the SYSCO truck she often saw pulling up to her college dorm’s cafeteria. A retirement home was a lot like a college dorm, except people didn’t graduate — they died.

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“Visiting Allie” by Elissa Nelson

Posted on September 24, 2012 by writer

Character: Police station clerk
Action: Tightening a knot
Setting: A meeting for a subversive group
Prop: Decorative songbirds made from vinyl records

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Visiting Allie

 by Elissa Nelson

George drives into Portland from where he lives, near the coast, near Florence. He’s not quite on the ocean—but he’s only about ten minutes away on his motorcycle, so good weather (really lots of kinds of weather), he gets over there a lot. Just to be by the ocean. Whoever would’ve thought he’d live ten minutes from the ocean? But he does. Sure, his house is smaller than it would be if he were farther away, but it’s big enough for him. Him and Frankie, who loves the ocean, and they’ve figured out how to get him there on the motorcycle! Took some doing, but they figured it out. Thank god Phil has her own bike, because he doesn’t know if he could stand to leave Frankie at home. Especially at this point, when they’ve figured it out. George is still working a lot—what the hell else would he do with himself, anyway?—but he does get to the coast most days. He has to swing by his house and get Frankie, unless Frankie came in to work with him, which he does a lot these days—then they head over to the ocean.

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“When Your First Bust Is a Santa Claus” by Courtney Sherwood

Posted on September 24, 2012 by writer

Congratulations to Courtney Sherwood for winning in the 2012 Individual category!

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Character: Police station clerk
Action: Tightening a knot
Setting: A meeting for a subversive group
Prop: Decorative songbirds made from vinyl records

***

When Your First Bust Is a Santa Claus

by Courtney Sherwood

When your first bust is a Santa Claus, it can be hard to believe in what you’re doing.

I remember the little boy’s dusky tear-streaked face, his bold older sister as she crossed her arms and furrowed her brow in defiance. “It’ll be OK,” she asserted, as though she knew anything. Ages four and eight, the file said. How much harm could a little magic cause? I wondered, then stifled the thought.

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“Occupy the Bacon” by Bob Ferguson

Posted on September 24, 2012 by writer

Character: Police station clerk
Action: Tightening a knot
Setting: A meeting for a subversive group
Prop: Decorative songbirds made from vinyl records

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Occupy the Bacon

by Bob Ferguson

The tragedy of lightening is that it strikes randomly. It never punishes the deserving. Have you ever heard of lightening striking an “idiot congressman?” As Mark Twain, said “…but repeat myself.” That was the view held by Angus Thornberry, a cop who walked the “Old Town” beat until a quirky accident, changed his life.

While walking his night shift, a bicyclist riding a “fixie,” the type of bike with no gears, no brakes, and no brains, slammed into him. The rider’s thick helmet crashed into his cranium giving Angus a concussion. Like many other cops, Angus filed for the “golden disability parachute.” His reputation suffered when he claimed to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder shortly after taking acting classes.

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“Untitled” by Anne Adams

Posted on September 24, 2012 by writer

Character: Police station clerk
Action: Tightening a knot
Setting: A meeting for a subversive group
Prop: Decorative songbirds made from vinyl records

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Untitled

by Anne Adams

His parents probably should have never named him “Hades”—and in fact they didn’t—but that was the name that he’d chosen to go by, at least for Sunday Amateur Anarchy. In strategy sessions at the Hammer Café, he’d say stuff like: “When we react to plutocracy with complacency, we’re just giving them a free pass to keep fucking us!” while he bounced Safire’s baby on his tattered black knee. When the baby fanned its chubby fingers toward someone else’s red mohawk, he’d pass it down a row of waiting hands. As it went along, it tried to grasp a few dangling dreadlocks in its little fists and slobber on their cottony tips. Safire’s baby loved Sundays as much as the grownup Anarchists.

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