Horror and Wholesome
Hope makes you dumb. It makes you forgetful and blind and overly eager, especially when you're a teen girl on the outs with your best, and pretty much only, friend. It was a tale as old as time; two childhood besties who pinky swore to never, ever stop being friends grew up and grew apart.... Continue Reading →
Just about the first thing anyone new to the neighborhood learned was to avoid Bud Filimore. Cantankerous, territorial, and fueled by what seemed to be a deep-seated hatred for just about everything, he was the kind of man that childhood nightmares were made of. Although he'd only lived there for a few months longer than... Continue Reading →
Me and my little girl didn't live rich, but we lived well. We had a solid roof over our head in a navy-blue collar neighborhood filled with good, hard working people barely making ends meet. A nursing assistant and her elderly mother to one side, a bus driver to the other, a construction worker across... Continue Reading →
Boys will be boys. How many times had I heard that before? It was a popular saying in my circle. It was what we told ourselves so we could get through another night of clammy, pawing hands and drunken come ons. It was what we said to each other after another all-too-near-miss with a particularly... Continue Reading →
You couldn't lie to my sister. Not about the big stuff, anyway, the stuff that ate away at you and kept you awake at night. I don't know if I'd call it a gift or anything, but she had an ability. She could see guilt. I don't mean she was good at reading expressions or... Continue Reading →
I doubt you’ve heard of Minnie Dearhorn, not many have. I certainly hadn’t; not until my grandparents dragged me to a charity auction put on by one of their wealthy old person societies. It was a boring, stuffy affair filled with boring, stuffy people. Grandma and Grandpa made me sit with them in the middle... Continue Reading →
My mom was the one who “suggested” I volunteer at the little history museum in the park. Her idea of suggesting was signing me up and popping her head in my room later on to tell me I was expected to show up the following Saturday at 7 AM. “It'll look good on your college... Continue Reading →
The steak was the first thing to go missing. I'd left it to defrost in the fridge overnight, but by morning, only the plate it had been sitting on remained. I asked my husband, Connor, about it, but he said he hadn't touched it, and our seven year old son, Jamie, was so thoroughly grossed... Continue Reading →
I should have known better than to pull off on an unlit, backwoods road, but it was my first instinct when I noticed my car pulling to one side with the telltale limp of a flat tire. I groaned, hitting the heel of my hand against the steering wheel. I could change a flat without... Continue Reading →
Things had been rocky lately. I knew the first year of marriage was supposed to be one of the hardest, but no one had said there'd be days where I felt like I was waking up next to a stranger. I'd stare at his face, still lined with tension even in his sleep, and I'd... Continue Reading →
Stories By S.H. Cooper 