Frances Hogg

“The New Kid” by Frances Hogg

The new kid stood there at the door of Mrs. Hill’s fifth-grade class. He wore thick glasses and red jeans. Who wears red jeans? I paid attention to the looks he got from other kids. I could see that they judged him as a weirdo and an outcast. I felt sorry for the new kid. Mama told me a story once about when she was the new kid in school. When her daddy died they moved to Cleveland from the safety of their little town. They moved there because Great-Aunt Celia lived there. Mama told me how scared she had been when she walked into ...

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“Dust” by Frances Hogg

Submitted to Contest #234

It came up from the west—an angry, roiling black wall five-thousand feet high and moving at sixty miles an hour. Clayton saw it coming and threw a tarp over the chicken coop, put the mule and cow into the cowshed and tied grain sacks loosely over their heads. Olive stuffed damp tea cloths and sheets into the cracks around the doors and windows, though she knew nothing she did would be enough to stop the dust. As suffocating darkness swept over their little farmhouse, the husband and wife huddled together under blankets. Grit peppered the win...

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“The End of Bliss” by Frances Hogg

Submitted to Contest #221

Her Aunt Rosie had a camera that could do that. If you looked through the lens while you pushed a little dial with your finger, the image would get bigger. It took a little while for the picture to come back into focus—but then you could do it again, and the image would get bigger still. Tammy had always liked playing with the camera. Liked leaning with her elbows on the windowsill, peering at birds in the treetops of the woods behind their house. She was in those woods now. Without the camera. High in a tree. It was night but she wasn’t ...

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“Out of Luck” by Frances Hogg

Debby Larsen surveyed her realm, the cafeteria of Williamston Junior High, which also served as the school’s gymnasium. At either end of the long room a basketball hoop and backboard hung beneath banners that encouraged, “Go, Hornets, Go!” and “Just Say No To Drugs.” Posters for the school play flanked the small stage on one side, while bleachers took up the length of the opposite wall. This is where the Mid-State Regional Science Fair happened every March, and where, every November, curtained partitions hid citizens as they voted for school...

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“The Wizard of the West” by Frances Hogg

Dick Demke smiled at the pretty, dark-haired flight attendant and made his way back to Row 17. The rest of the passengers on LAN Flight 690, the red-eye non-stop from JFK to Guayaquil, Ecuador, were already in their seats, but that had been part of Dick’s plan. He had arrived at the gate as late as possible, and had caused a scene there. He had pulled off his misdirection perfectly, not a difficult thing to do in the crowded and confusing atmosphere of the security check. Dick found his row and shoved his hand baggage into the overhead bin....

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“The Cat Came Back” by Frances Hogg

Lawrence rang the doorbell a fifth time. “God damn it!” he muttered. Where’s the nurse? It was costing him $195 a day for 24-hour care for his mother, yet no one was here to answer the damned door! He stormed back to his car. Even though the money he was paying to Peaceful Passages was his mother’s and not his, every penny wasted was a penny he wouldn’t receive as part his inheritance, and that ticked him off. He was also irritated because while her doctors agreed that Dorothy was ready for hospice care, they refused to hazard a guess as to ...

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“Oubliette” by Frances Hogg

Submitted to Contest #140

“Where one is forgotten but not gone.” Pamela chewed on her pencil. Number 39 across was a word with lots of vowels. The title of the puzzle was “The French Connection.” How to say “to forget” in French?” She’d excelled in the language in college. Oublier, of course. Pamela penciled in, O-U-B-L-I-E-T-T-E. She remembered the first time she’d ever heard that word. She’d been with Charles in a castle in England somewhere, or maybe in Wales. It was during their grand European honeymoon. They’d visited so many castles then, because as a chil...

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