Hope Linter

“Desperate Remedies” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #248

Kyle pulled back Melanie’s hair that fell limp over her gaunt cheek and tied the food bib on her. She placed her hand on his, her muscles involuntarily jerking; she could no longer hold her eating utensils. He knew how hurt and challenged she felt like this, and when she thought he was out, he heard her raging and it broke his heart.  “I really like the texture of this food,” she said, after he spoon fed her from the bowl of processed dinner.  “And the taste?” he said, ignoring the bitter edge of her sarcasm. “Let me guess, carrots...

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“Searching for Carrie Ann in a New Frontier” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #247

April 19, 2124I am Joanna Gaze, commander of the craft Branceritos through the newly discovered Folds of Space that exist on our planet Earth, hidden before from human eyes. A substance discovered on Mars, Makinaki creates a film in specialized scopes that enables humans to see into this new frontier. Scientists and engineers developed the Branceritos craft to propel itself within the specifications of the new Makinaki Scope. This is the biggest discovery in my world during my lifetime, but also of personal significance to me. My daughter, C...

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“The Road to the Millers” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #239

My electric car battery died in the middle of a valley of green pasture, speckled with black and white jersey cows. In a better frame of mind, I would have appreciated the setting; the spring blue sky and the winding rural road that disappeared ahead over a hillock, like in so many of those paintings, where I loved to let my imagination wander and lead me into the unknown. But now, over the crest, a kilometre away, there wouldn’t be adventure, but another no-news nuisance story.  “Damn asinine assignments,” I shouted, and hammered my he...

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“Her 9:15” by Hope Linter

Warning: occasional swearword, prostitution He whispered tender things in her ear, including how much he enjoyed their date-nights, and nibbled her lobes, until she felt fluttering sensations in her toes, stretched out on her red, satiny bed sheets. He’d told her his name several times during the fifteen times he’d paid visits to her, but she refused to remember. This evening, he was her 9:15; another man in a line of customers who paid for her services; one of her gentler regulars, perhaps attractive in a broken tooth, crooked shy smile k...

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“Challenges of a Middle-Aged Mediocre Runner” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #235

Arlene pulled at the white laces in her pristine running shoes. The synthetic off-gassing didn’t have the pleasurable leather smell from runners in the old days, but they emitted newness and hope. Satisfied the laces were tight, she double tied them and stood up, her weight suspended on the cushiony soles. In the elevator, feeling a spectacle in her middle-age, wearing lycra running gear, she breathed thanks as the elevator passed all the floors without stopping. Even the lobby was empty and she walked unaccosted through the main door witho...

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“Diary of me dumping Sugar” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #233

January 1, 2024 Dear Diary. My New Year’s Resolution is to give up sugar for a month. I thought I had eaten all the Christmas chocolates and sweets, and the boxes of Purdy’s chocolate I’d bought as extra gifts just in case, but today I found a box I’d put for safekeeping in the closet behind the linens on the third shelf. (The boys can’t reach up there yet!) I meant to give them to my sister when we visited her today, and I had them in a bag by the front door, but Bonbon, the terrier rescue, we gave our five year old son, Jamie for Christma...

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“Serving Soup at the Mission” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #231

I adjusted the new name tag my ten-year-old niece had made to replace my discreet Outreach Gospel Mission one and stirred the huge old blackened vat of soup. A diminutive woman who seemed familiar but I couldn’t place disappeared behind Leonard in the lunch line-up. Bending my head, I inhaled the fragrant aroma of the vegetables, potatoes and onions I’d diced along with the pearl barley I’d added in to make up for the lack of meat. The woman reemerged into view, looking down at her battered granny shoes, and I considered if she was who I was...

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“A Hot Chocolate Offering” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #227

John snowshoed past white skirted firs and pines on the North Shore mountains, noting the morning light blue sky giving way to cloud and obscuring the morning sun. Below, the city of Vancouver stretched out; shiny highrises and greenery surrounded by blue sea. He located their highrise in the West End, and wondered what his girlfriend, Caroline, was doing. She’d been distant, and it bothered him.    “Wait up, you keep racing ahead,” Raymond called.  John stopped and shook a nearby branch and watched the snow cascade in a mini...

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“Charlotte's Vacation” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #226

At the Vancouver YVR airport, Charlotte checked her boarding pass to Cancun, Mexico. She rubbed her temples. Her perennial headache threatened to return, despite taking two Advil tablets before leaving home. The parent next to her sang and bounced a toddler on his lap. Charlotte hadn’t slept last night, not just because of the flight, but her sleep had been getting worse, even with the sedative, Immovane.  A few weeks ago, her doctor strongly advised her to take a relaxing vacation and threatened her with heart attack and other risks f...

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“Meeting My Doppelgänger” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #225

“I saw someone, who looks exactly like you,” Janine, a friend in my running group said. She sat kittycorner to me at the end of the large dark table in the back of Starbucks. I nodded, deep breathing, I didn’t like being at that end, closest to the washrooms with the exit doors at the other end of the cafe. In fact it was a phobia of mine, I’d mentioned to Janine and a couple of others, but I’d made light of it myself, and we’d laughed it off. But ever since then I’d challenged myself to go for coffee with the group on Saturdays after our ru...

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“Armour too Fine for Slaying a Dragon” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #217

Humming, Nebneb polished his bronze helmet and breastplate and used a special brush to clean out and polish all edges and crannies. Hours passed by in moments, and sometimes he’d be in a position so long, he’d get stiff and have to move around. He held the breast plate up to admire its shine, and met the stern reflection of his father, chief Elbisnopser, of their tribe, Nogard Sreyals.  “You’ve been polishing your armor all morning. It’s time you joined your training partners. Glander and Meangle are already much faster and better shot...

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“We're Going Where?” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #216

Tom sprawls on his couch, a bag of opened cheesies in his lap, and his hands covered in orange greasy dust. A ping-pong tournament is playing on his television. He’s content, relaxing, and doesn’t care who will win.  He snacks and grows drowsy, and the bag drops from his hand, as he nods off to the intermittent drone of the commentators and the clacking of paddles fades from his awareness.  With a start, he awakens when his front door is unlocked and his girlfriend, Jessica, calls out to him. “I knocked and knocked. You didn’t an...

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“Jeremy's Sliver” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #194

Jeremy felt a prick on his finger, the one next to his thumb. He stared at the redness surrounding the hair-thin bit of wood sunk into the fleshy pad of his fingertip. It hurt, and he tried to pull it out with his fingers, but couldn’t get hold of the tiny end. “I’ll get it out.” Missy left the TV room where they were building a small house out of wooden popsicle sticks and returned with a large pair of black scissors and a large needle.  “Why’d you bring those and not the tweezers?”  “I couldn’t find them.” “Don’t touch me wit...

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“A Ride to the Airport” by Hope Linter

“I’ll give you a ride to the airport,” George said, while we were having coffee at Happy Bean Cafe in the West End of Vancouver. “Oh, that’s wonderful,” my boyfriend Tom said.  “That’s kind of you, George, but we don’t want to put you to all that trouble. It’s too early and we’ll preorder a taxi.” I’d done research and the buses wouldn’t be running until after six, which would be too late for us. Tom pulled a long face at me. “George just wants to help us.”   “No problem for me. I’ll be up long before you have to go and I ...

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“Haro's Crush” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #191

I have taken some artistic license with names and other aspects of the Japanese culture. The Ryōan-ji Temple with it’s famous Zen garden does exist in Kyoto. Eighteen-year-old Hiro Ito contemplated the perfectly raked white gravel in the karesansui or dry landscape of the famous Ryōan-ji Zen garden in his hometown of Kyoto. Wooden floor boards embued with the earthy scent of generations and smoothed down over the centuries felt soft under his socks, and comforting to his touch sitting on the veranda. An uncle who had become a Japanese monk,...

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