Red Roses (99 Words)
Clair had never liked red roses. They seemed to her too garish. Anyway there wasn’t much to be lost our gained in philosophizing over flowers, so Clair never really thought twice about whether she liked red roses or not until that roadside walk.
Silver Shells and Beads (365 Words)
His cousins were visiting. Tommy knew he should like it when his cousins visited, but they were a little older than him and always treated him like a baby. So when his parents and their parents went to the beach, Tommy spent most of his time playing in the sand with Puppy.
That was how Tommy found it, digging in the sand. It was a silver shell. The shell was perfectly silver, gleaming and smooth. Tommy was looking at it when he heard someone calling to him.
“Psst! Psst!”
Big Nose (133 Words)
Big Nose would always remember that morning. It was bitter cold. But the calf was still alive. In the early light it rested there, not quite ready to stand, while Eddie kept the fire going. Big Nose kept close to the fire, too. Although the cold didn’t affect him badly, he was a smart horse and never said no to heat.
Sea Monster (132 Words)
Supposing it was a sea monster. Billy and Brian insisted that it was. I thought there was a mechanical touch to it myself.
“Well go on,” I said. “See what it is.”
They looked around the bench, glaring at me.
“It could eat us, silly,” pointed out Brian, always the logical one.
Moonstruck (198 Words)
It wasn’t a fairy tale. The day after the wedding, she went back to her job as one of half-a-dozen lifeguards at the community beach. He had the early morning to evening shift at the grocery store. And sitting at her post in the burning heat, her eyes shaded by the brim of her hat, Carrie wondered if anything had really changed.
It hadn’t. She knew that. Yet something was different.
Betty Dances (291 Words)
Five years old and Betty was as much a mystery to her mother as she was the day she was born. The little girl seemed so serious, straightening her hair with pudgy fingers, watching not her hair but her own frowning face in the mirror.
“I never wanted to be a ballerina when I was her age either,” said a man’s quiet, teasing voice.
Falling Forwards (1267 Words)
But oh, what joy to see him! To find him, alive! I could not stop but embraced him. Rupert patted my back with light affection. I was surprised, cavalier as he was in nature, that he did not withdraw entirely.
“Thank God,” I said, “thank God!”
“Steady on,” said Rupert, the smile in his voice as plain as any wholesome laugh. “What’s this, then?”
