Posts in SHORT STORIES
THE WORLD IS NOT A MIRROR: A CHRISTMAS STORY

I had said goodnight and “Happy Holidays” to my co-workers, locked the office door behind me, checked my email and texts one last time before pocketing my phone, and I was on my way to the parking lot when I inhaled the smell of candy-canes.

Only this wasn’t any normal candy-cane smell. This had the sharpness of freshly picked peppermint leaves. There was a smokiness to the aroma, as if they were burning in an open fire. The snow started coming down again in heavy clumps, the snowflakes collapsing into one another. The Weather Channel predicted this would be one of the snowiest winters on record. For once, they were right. There were lane closures on I95 every other day. Getting home was a deliberate, sometimes frightening adventure.

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DON'T BE A NICE GUY

“Be honest,” Brian said, with that dumb, affected grin of his. “You’re a little excited.”

“I guess,” Summer replied, glaring out the Long Island Expressway, a long stretch of curvy darkness interrupted by flickering red and white car lights. Brian turned the speaker volume up and they nodded in time to the heavy beat of generic house music.

Brian was the driver, recently twenty-one and unable to focus on much other than the nameless female bodies that crossed his line of sight. He lacked the knowledge or, more accurately, the courage to speak to any of them.  But when it came to noticing them, he was an expert.

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