Danielle Cole

“Relevant” by Danielle Cole

“Ir-rel-e-vant, adjective. Meaning: not connected with or relevant to something,” mumbled Marie under her breath. “I should get this printed on a t-shirt for myself.” She blew the steam off her coffee before returning to her favorite pastime as of late- reading the dictionary quietly to herself before the kids woke up. Prior to the virus she would have been up at four-thirty a.m., dressed at five, have the kids up and dressed by six, and out the door by six-thirty. A quick and tidy drop off at daycare would be followed b...

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“Rubber Stamp Time Travelers” by Danielle Cole

The librarian, Miss Franklin, interrupted me at closing time one night in the midst of deciding between The Mirror Cracked Side to Side or Murder Under the Sun and asked if she could make a recommendation. I nodded and she pushed a copy of The Mists of Avalon into my hands.  “If you love this adventure then come back to me and I’ll offer you an even more exciting one.”  I devoured the story and returned to the library two days later expecting another book recommendation. Instead, she offered me a job. While it paid...

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“Gloria” by Danielle Cole

August 15 My neighbor Gloria is such a doll. A tart old lady of ninety, I’d hardly call her old at all. She has the most beautiful long white hair. It shines like fresh milk in the early morning light. She doesn’t drive and never has. She walks. Says God gave her two legs and two feet that work for a reason. I walked with her today, the four miles to and from the grocery store and asked her if she was lonely now that her husband and children are all dead. She said no that they never really left her in...

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“Sweetheart Surprise Box” by Danielle Cole

      “There’s a lot of dusty crap in here,” Beatrice coughed.            “Where did you learn to say the word crap,” I asked sharply?            “Mom, I’m thirteen now. I can say ‘crap’ at least. There’s a lot of other words out there that are a lot worse. Like shi…”            “I know, I know. I am familiar with them all. I’m ju...

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“A Cuppa Murder” by Danielle Cole

        I knew he was going to die that day. Call it women’s intuition. Or, maybe I just knew that no one was going to treat my best friend and business partner that way and get away with it! Veronica and I had owned The Hot Cuppa for five years already, but it seemed like the grand opening was just yesterday. Our little tea shop was a mutual endeavor; something to free us from the daily rat race. She was on Wall Street and I, ironically, had been an exterminator for ten years....

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“Bittersweet Birthday” by Danielle Cole

      In my ‘kid-mind’ my grandpa was the most amazing musician in the world. Born during the depression era to immigrant Irish and Bohemian parents he grew up in a Chicago City slum. I remember the stories he used to tell me about how his mother would drag the bedframes out into the ally, douse them in kerosine, and light them on fire to keep the bedbugs in check. There wasn’t even enough money for underpants let alone music lessons. But somehow the nine-year-old boy who had to walk the train tra...

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“The Devil's lease” by Danielle Cole

Submitted to Contest #117

           Everything was ready for the ritual. Now to bring the mortals. This was his favorite time of year!            Thursday, October the thirtieth Becky stopped by the local grocery store to pick up yet another free apartment guide. To her surprise there were none left. She searched around in disbelief, because she had never, ever seen them low on apartment guides. In fact, they often had so many extra that ...

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“The Building” by Danielle Cole

Cassy lives in number two, works at Burger King, and complains that nothing exciting ever happens to her.             In number one there is a man named Franco. Franco is a murderer. Though Cassy and Franco live right next to each other, they have never met, but they will tonight.            In number seventeen lives William; a drug addict. William’s mom and step dad don’t know that William has a meth lab set up in his...

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“Maggie's Sunglasses” by Danielle Cole

Submitted to Contest #105

Maggie was a sweet quiet polite girl. She liked to read and spent most of her time alone curled up with her favorite book. An innocent enough hobby, but it seemed to dominate Maggie's err, umm 'social life'. This bothered her parents.            The truth was that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Maggie. Right now she was just fed up with people, especially those of her own age. Unfortunately, her parents had little insight into this so they worried greatly that the...

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“If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em.” by Danielle Cole

Submitted to Contest #104

Kevin had everything assembled, but he quadruple checked his list just in case he forgot anything. "Cheesy poofs...check. Potato chips...check. Faygo soda in cherry, grape, and Rockin Rye...check. Laptop...check. Internet connection humming...check. Cheese pizza with ham, black olives, and green peppers...check. One bag of double stuff Oreos...check.' Headphones...check. Special addition DVD of 'Lord of the Rings' all three parts plus 'The Hobbit' for good measure....check. DVD special addition of the entire series of the 'Chronicles of Narn...

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“The Genie and the Garbage Man” by Danielle Cole

Submitted to Contest #101

Drive to the next house, pick up the can, dump. Drive to the next house, pick up the can, dump. Drive to the next house..... Gary hated the repetition of his job. He hated ending his work day at 3 pm stinking like everything and anything the upper middle classes decided to throw out that day- funky smelling couches, leftover pizza, road kill, deceased family pets, and whatever else your wildest imagination could think of to throw out. Yeah, it was an easy job. Yeah, it was a decent paying job. But it just wasn't a very challenging or...

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“Chicken With a side of Glass. Can You Pass Me a Potato Please?” by Danielle Cole

Submitted to Contest #100

My grandma was a Sicilian. That's Italian for, 'you just ate? You must be hungry, let me make you some food.' I'm not even joking here. One day I made the mistake of eating a sub sandwich before showing up at my grandma's at two P.M. She asked me if I had eaten, I said yes, and then she promptly prepared 'a little something' for me which included: lunch meat sandwiches on home made bread, home made soup with fresh parmesan cheese, and fresh homemade bread sticks for dunking. Oh, yeah, and a little side salad complete with bacon bits, tomato,...

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“The Elevator” by Danielle Cole

Submitted to Contest #99

The Elevator            The heat sweltered down from the ruthless sun and then radiated back up again from the unforgiving black asphalt in unbearable waves. He took a fine white linen handkerchief from his suit coat pocket and dabbed the beads of sweat off his sunburnt skin. The day was hot- well over a hundred degrees, and humid, but he still wore all of his finest things: tight black leather dress shoes (freshly polished), white cotton dress shirt (freshly pressed), and a ...

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“The Plunge” by Danielle Cole

Submitted to Contest #93

The Plunge By: Danielle Zielinski            “Enu, enu, enu. Whoooop! Arrr, arr, arr, arrr.” The standard car alarm music blared through its fifteenth cycle.             “People have gotten so good at ignoring them I find it amazing anyone still uses car alarms anymore,” I thought to myself as I dangled from the bungie cord. It was cold and I wished I had worn that sweater afterall.  I fingered the party hat that ...

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