Spring/Summer 2016

Paul Beckman used to be a Pin Setter & many other things. These
days he’s a Zeyde who writes, travels and takes pictures both
above and beneath the water. He collects memories and
punchboards. Some publishing credits: Metazen, Connotation
Press, Existere, Boston Literary Magazine, Molotov Cocktail,
Pure Slush, The Brooklyner, 5 Trope,Blink-Ink, Litro,
Soundzine, Opium,  Playboy, The Connecticut Review, Ascent
Aspirations and other fine publications on line, in print & via
audio. He can be reached at his published story
website www.paulbeckmanstories.com 
His new flash story collection, “Peek,” from Big Table Publishing
came out in Feb. 2015 weighing in at 65 stories and 117 pages.

 

 

 

All That Glitters . . .

     The girls smile while waiting for the school bus. Their mother, standing in the doorway,

smiles looking at her girls. The husband/father scootches by the mother, briefcase in hand, smiles

and pecks her on the cheek as his car pool driver shows up.

     The father is in his last day of work due to layoffs. The girls will be bullied on the bus

and in school and the house is under foreclosure due to their bankruptcy filing because of the

mother’s cervical cancer bills.

     The neighbors wave and smile to the mother and she back to them. One calls her for

coffee but she begs off saying another time.

     The scene repeats itself the next day except the father stands next to his wife smiling and

waving to his girls who wave and smile back. The parents go back into the house.

     After lunch the police and ambulances arrive and the sheet-covered parents are wheeled

out as the neighbors gather and watch, not understanding what could cause a happening like this

in such a happy, smiling family.

Flash Fiction by Paul Beckman

To view more from this author get your copy of the Spring/Summer 2016 issue here…