Idea for a Short Documentary Film
A one line story which informs the reader of the idea.
Lonely
The narrator explains the loneliness results from a vicious cycle of involving a phone that never rings and an answering machine.
Varieties of Disturbance
In which a remarkable number of people are disturbed by various members of their family. Sixteen of the roughly 700 words comprising this story is the word “disturbance.”
Almost Over: Separate Bedrooms
The wife dreams of her husband. He dreams of British poets.
How She Could Not Drive
A surprisingly literal story that explains in excruciating detail all the myriad circumstances under which the protagonist is incapable of driving.
The Outing
The entire trek of a domestic argument from an outburst on the road to crying alone in the bushes in just six-hundred words.
The Walk
At a conference in Oxford, England a female translator and a male critic share a meal and take a walk together. Although the promise of sex lingers throughout, they are proof that extreme opposites do not fully attract. She retires alone to her room and the next day and just before they get into their respective cabs, he informs her that they likely won’t meet again.
A Man from Her Past
The “her” is not the narrator, but her elderly mother. And the man from the past is someone with whom she is flirting in the present, just after the narrator’s father has been admitted to a nursing home.
Helen and Vi: A Study in Health and Vitality
The title is serious: this unusually lengthy story by the author is presented in the form of a scientific study. Using the kind of dry, declarative language of such studies, the reader learns about the lifestyles of an elderly African-American woman from the south and an elderly white woman from the north. The report offers information on the recreational activities, physical activity, employment history and other appropriate aspects of their lives in an attempt to explain the high quality of their lives.
They Take Turns Using a Word They Like
The word today is “extraordinary’. Or, perhaps, extraordinary is “today’s” word.
We Miss You: A Study of Get-Well Letters from a Class of Fourth-Graders
Another story written as a sociological study. The subject: twenty-seven letters from fourth grades to their fellow student Stephen while he in the hospital being treated for osteomyelitis. Excerpts from the letters dominate.
A Double Negative
A woman reaches a point at which she learns something about the feeling she’s always thought was wanting to have a child someday.
The Fish Tank
The tank is located in a supermarket. While staring at the fish, the narrator begins musing about the freshness of the meal if she were to cook one of them tonight. The dark shape of a predator appears until it reveals itself as merely a reflection.
The Actors
H. is an actor built to play Othello who can’t act. J. brings Othello to life, but the effect is lost due to his small stature and pale skin. Sparr is an out-of-town actor who fuses the best of both. He still manages to leave the narrator preferring the local boys.
Boring Friends
A conundrum. Or is it a paradox. The narrator says they only have four boring friends while the rest of interesting. Only problem: the interesting friends include her among their boring friends. Quite the social predicament.
Jury Duty
Another story of atypical length, this is presented in the form of a question and answer form except that while each “A:” is followed by answer filled with detail, what should follow “Q:” is always blank. So while we are made party to the answer and learn about what happened when person answering the questions showed up for jury duty, the who, why, where and what of the person asking the questions that are answered remains a completely mystery.
Cape Cod Diary
Although the structure is many short entry of one or two paragraphs separated from each other with a double-space, this is another long that is—perhaps surprisingly—is not technically presented in diary form. None of the entries are dated, in other words. It is the freewheeling, loosely connected story of a woman working as a French translator vacationing alone one August. The entries range from accounts of the weather, to trips to a museum, an initial impression of a neighbor which she later alters upon further information and the progression of an essay on which she works. In addition, there are descriptions of a visit by a plumber and eating with older people too tired to carry on conversation but not too tired to go all out at cracking open their lobster. And then it ends.
Almost Over: What’s the Word?
She learns the word that he didn’t think she would turn out to inhabit so fully when they first met.
City People
They moved to the country and the most of the story is a litany of everything that happens with country living which they despise. Then they explain why they remain there despite being “city people.”
Selfish
The short-short story as advice: if you are going to be selfish, you have to go to the extreme. Being only slightly selfish goes against the entire point of being selfish. The narrator will explain why this is.
Passing Wind
An internal monologue of a woman based entirely on the premise of which of the other two occupants in the room just passed gas: him or the dog?
The Other
Two people, one house. One changes things and right behind is the other one changing it back. But then sweet revenge as the first one does something that the other simply cannot change back to how it was.
