Ann Rapp

“The Cabin in Winter” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #77

    The paved road that lead to the turn-off for the Remington cabin had been salted and plowed. I had stopped in town and carried several cardboard cartons filled with food and supplies in the back of my 4-Runner, but there was plenty of daylight left to see the landmarks Irene had given me, and I easily spotted the sign with the name “Remington” and an arrow pointing into the dense forest. About six inches of hard-packed, powdery snow covered the service road leading up to the cabin, which showed but a few sets of tire ...

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“Fat Rascals” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #71

My face must have reflected my feelings as I walked into the living room because my husband Joe  looked up at me and asked, “Why the long face?” “Oh, Joe, I just got off the phone with Angie. She’s feeling down in the dumps and not looking forward to Christmas at all.” I explained to Joe that Angie’s son and daughter in law with their eight year-old twins were going off to Germany to spend Christmas. They spent last Christmas with Angie and this year it was the turn of the other grandparents. Charlie’s her only child and I sympathize...

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“The Saladan Bazaar: An Intergalactic Market” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #67

      A soft knocking on the door woke me up. The gentle breathing and warmth of Damen beside me in the bed and pale lavender light around the curtains lured me back into sleep. The knocking came again, then somebody opened the door and came into the room.            “Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Frost, we hope you slept well. Here is your early morning coffee and tea. Breakfast will be served in the dining room from 7:30 until 9:30 earth time. My name is ...

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“Fire at Leaning Rock” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #64

My two daughters sat one on either side of me holding my hands, and quite honestly holding me up, at the funeral. They had lost their beloved father, and I had lost the love of my life, Brian Symington. He was only seventy three, but had died from a massive heart attack when he was out in the north field, driving the tractor. He’d fallen off and we found him dead on the ground next to the stalled tractor. The doctors said nothing could have been done to save him. I couldn’t concentrate on the burial service, and my mind wander...

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“The Migrant's Tale” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #63

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction, but I have used information about migrating birds from the Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which I believe is the most up-to-date scientific data. Interviewer: Please tell us what happens during your winter migration. Maude:         Yes, I will tell you the story of what happened last year. Small rustling sounds among the leaves woke me from a sweet dream of warm sunshine and a full stomach. I was hungry and would need to go for...

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“Fulfilling his Destiny” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #62

As he walked home from school that afternoon Valborn thought it was a beautiful day to ride his horse Fastrax along the beach, but it was a sad, forlorn thought because he had to go to his great uncle Gustav’s funeral. The whole family was gathering in the clearing where Gustav’s caravan was parked. Inside the caravan lay Gustav’s body, washed, prepared, and dressed in his finest clothes, laid in a wooden casket and sprinkled with sweet-smelling dried flowers and herbs. All of Gustav’s possessions, except for his horses and his truck, w...

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“The Red Dolls' House” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #61

Christmas was coming soon. As I walked down Leytonstone High Street to my bus stop I stopped to look in the brightly decorated windows of Bearman’s Department Store. One window had a living room scene with a fireplace, a decorated Christmas tree with gifts wrapped in shiny paper, and an angel on top. In the room were two child mannequins dressed in their best little suit and tie, and frilly dress and patent leather shoes, down on the floor opening presents, while their Mum and Dad mannequins, in their best suit and tie, and velvet dress and ...

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“Coming to America” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #59

The plane began its descent through the clouds and Lucy’s eyes widened as she looked down on the famous Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan, sparkling in the sun. It didn’t look real, but like a cinematographer’s creation of a beautiful and magical lost city at the far reaches of space, the plane their spaceship about to land, strangers in a strange land. The plane banked and turned away from the magical city, flying over mile upon mile of suburbs, to the edge of the vast, flat Illinois prairie farmlands, ready to land. During the flight from...

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“Elevator Ride” by Ann Rapp

My office was on LaSalle Street in Chicago, just a couple of blocks down from the Chicago Stock Exchange. My job was that of a lowly cleric in the Legal Department of a top-name brokerage firm. Most of the time we dealt with routine, rather boring, regulatory matters, but occasionally we had some excitement. Our Department Head, the General Counsel, called us all into a meeting early one morning. A couple of FBI agents were to arrive at nine to sit in on a meeting with a client suspected of forging stock certificates. “Jane, when Mr. Jenki...

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“The Small Silver Cup” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #57

Cleaning up around the house was not how I normally spent my Sunday mornings, but I’d been hard at it since seven thirty to make the back garden and our new pool look good. And it did. Look good, I mean. “Lookin’ good, Will,” said Dad admiring the patio and pool area. “Not that you’re trying to impress anyone, of course!” “Well, maybe, just a bit, but I like Lara a lot, she’s special.” Dad smiled and nodded as though he wrote the book about young love. My Dad is in construction. He built our house and then put a swimming pool in the back...

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“The Unexpected Guest” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #56

I cheated on my husband just once. With just one man, that is. The marriage was not what you’d call a happy one, but lasted just over twelve years. We had two wonderful children during that time, so we must have had sex at least twice, but, to be honest, sex didn’t play an important part of our marriage. My oldest was ten by the time I heard that women had orgasms. You might be thinking I grew up in a convent perhaps, but no I was part of an ordinary post-war middle class family in London. Where I grew up is not as important as when. It wa...

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“My First Secret Society” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #55

My new friend at the office quickly discovered my interest in the occult and things spiritual. She was assigned to my orientation as a secretary in the tax department of Arthur Andersen’s in London, which was thriving in the nineteen-seventies but neither occult nor spiritual. We both worked for senior partners. Newly arrived in, or more accurately returned to, London after living in Australia for sixteen years, I was happy to get such a good job. Leila and her family came from South Africa and had lived in London for ten years. I was also ...

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“Grandma in the Classroom” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #54

“Welcome to Arkansas State University,” smiled the Dean, an attractive young blonde woman, giving new students at Orientation a short and inspiring speech.  Everyone in the room clapped, even the Dean, but of course she was applauding us, the students. I looked around the large, crowded room and saw one or two who looked like me, at least they had grey hair. For all I knew I would be the only student over the age of sixty in the whole place, but I hoped not. I was so very nervous, but excited at the same time. This was my first day of c...

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“Blizzard Baby” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #52

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” Shakespeare, Hamlet (1.5.167-8) The 5:17 from Union Station was over an hour late when it arrived at Batavia in the thick of a legendary Chicago blizzard. In spite of many fires kept burning on the train tracks to keep points from freezing, the great thundering diesel engine had been stopped in its tracks and was forced to wait for thawing equipment to do its job. Jane and her fellow passengers also waited for their own thawing equipment ...

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“The Church Bell in the Night” by Ann Rapp

Submitted to Contest #51

“Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” John Donne. The clock showed an eerie, green two a.m. as Charlene sat up in bed. Something woke her, a noise? She listened but heard nothing but a train whistle in the distance; that was not what woke her. Her little Yorkshire Terrier Leo was curled up in his basket beside her bed – he looked up at her and gave a small “woof” of acknowledgment, then tucked his head back under his leg for more sleep. She agreed with him and lay back on her pillow. If there was any need for her ...

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