4 responses to “Short, Short Stories”

1. 

   Shaun

   March 28, 2011

   “Last one in’s a thousand year egg!” Michelle shouted as we climbed out of the van in Kending at the island’s most famous beach. The sand was covered with people strolling along, mostly wearing long pants but barefoot, past brightly colored parasols and jet skis.
   “What are those dome-shaped things over there?” Beth asked. .
   “Oh,” answered Shannon, “they’re nuclear reactors.”
   Michelle’s enthusiasm ebbed slightly. “Maybe we should drive around and see the tip of the island before we swim.”

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2. 

   Shaun

   March 28, 2011

   CHICKEN LITTLE
   “Ready to push?”
   The trip had stopped short in a wide canyon starting up the southern cross-island highway. Rain and wind from an approaching typhoon had brought rock slides tumbling down the steep mountainside to where they had buried the road. We stopped the van before the first pile of rocks and walked another hundred yards up the road to find a farmer trying to drive his motorcycle across the rubble.
   “Yi, er, san! ” Mike counted to three in Chinese and the farmer gunned the engine. A little push and they were over.
   I lifted my camera, focused, and pressed the trigger just as Mike turned and ran.
   I discovered why as I lowered the lens and another shower of rock smashed into the pile less than ten feet in front of me. Without looking up, I turned and ran the other direction.
   “I thought you were dead, ”Von told me later.

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3. 

   Shaun Roundy

   March 28, 2011

   WASHED AWAY
   We drove along the coast and watched the weather change. The typhoon was on its way northwest and clouds blew in from across the ocean horizon, strong winds flattening the tall grasses along the highway.
   When we reached a tiny man-made harbor, we walked down the rocky beach to get a closer look at the growing waves as they crashed, frothing white, against the shore. A stone and cement jetty cut into the ocean and we wandered out along it.
   Behind us, millions of gallons of sea water heaved back and forth with every swell that gushed into the harbor through its narrow mouth. Waves crashed against the sea wall and exploded upward, bathing us with a cold, salty shower.
   A voice blasted from a loudspeaker behind us. We had no idea what the voice was saying, but its urgency made us understand that we weren’t supposed to be out on the jetty. We made our way back as bigger and bigger waves came crashing down around us.
   Inside the harbor the sand wasn’t all washed away, and we walked across the beach, laughing, enjoying the storm.
   A loud crash from behind us made us turn just in time to watch the top few feet of a wave rushing toward us, gushing over the jetty. Had we stayed on the jetty a few moments longer, we’d have been washed into the harbor, right into the violent currents. We’d have been dragged down into the dark ocean, buried underwater, carried out to sea.
   We stood on the sand, our mouths hanging open, calmly dumbfounded. “Hmm, ” Mike said thoughtfully.

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4. 

   Shaun Roundy

   March 28, 2011

   NAKED
   Our apartment had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The showers had no curtain, no tub, nothing but a shower head and hose that hung from the wall and the tile that stretched across the entire floor and walls.
   Mike knocked at the bathroom door and the shower turned off inside.
   “What?” Michelle asked through the door.
   “Are you naked?” Mike asked.
   “Yes.”
   “Can I come in?”

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