J.J. Erwin

“A Tale of Two Dicks who Make some Life Changes with Differing Results” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #215

Dick hadn’t killed a Great White for 18 days, 11 hours, and 39 minutes. He’d counted. His whole body ached with the need to kill. He could feel his teeth going dull, his heart and lungs shriveling without those juicy fats. Oh god, he’d been so close to that Great White the other day. Just a couple of flaps of his flukes and he’d had him. He could sense the fear swimming inside of the Great White. God, he loved when they were scar–Ok, stop, stop, stop. Dick, just stop! Get a hold of yourself! Dick shook his head. What had the therapist s...

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“The Strangest of Nights” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #210

Charles Mooncalf emerged from his cabin at nine in the evening on the dot, same as he did every evening, ready for his shift of walking the perimeter, and found himself lifting his hand to his eyes to shield them from a celestial brightness. Charles blinked twice and saw two moons sitting just above the line of evergreens that surrounded his tiny cabin. He was fairly certain that there had never been two moons before. His natural instinct was to try to get rid of the second moon (though he wasn’t sure he would be able to say which was t...

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“Occasional Signs” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #209

CASSODAY 40 MILES EL DORADO 60 MILES WICHITA 90 MILES They had been in the car for over an hour already and, besides Jeff asking Adrian if he was ready to go after they stopped for gas on their way out of town, they hadn’t spoken the whole ride. With each passing mile marker, with each destination sign, taunting him with how close they were nearing home, Jeff felt his heartbeat increasing, his palms growing sweaty, his stomach churning. Even his neck was hurting for all the times he had turned to glance at Adrian, waiting for either Adri...

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“ When he tuned out the last voice” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #202

He brings the steaming cup of coffee to his mouth and stares at Greta across the tiny black sea. Though this is the first time they've been in the same room in ten years, they’ve never been more distant. Not that she shows any indication of this. She’s acting, in a way that he can’t, like everything’s fine.  “—And you knew how we had always wanted to adopt—”  She alternates telling him stories, some he’s heard, some he hasn’t, with taking bites from her croissant. Each nibble is a performance—she pauses, takes the croissant in ...

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“Surrogacy Cost Tracker” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #194

TW: pregnancy lossIt had been fun for Theo to create the spreadsheet. It was the project manager in him, the evergreen student, the nerd. Certainly it was helpful to have a way to keep track of all the costs that go along with surrogacy, but need he have gone that far? Probably not. Theo used to look at the spreadsheet every day, even if there was nothing new to check off or enter into one of the waiting cells. He enjoyed seeing all that was ahead, and, more importantly, all that was behind them, all the milestones they had met, how far...

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“Don’t talk to me about your stupid stars” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #191

Of course it wasn’t about the meteor shower. He couldn’t care less about the meteors. Well, that’s not entirely true. He cared a little. He had never seen one and was curious what it would look like. He imagined, perhaps wrongly, bright streaks across the sky like smoky sparklers cutting through the black of a 4th of July night. Really it was about a boy. For Patrick, it was always about a boy. He hated that about himself, for many reasons, some darker than others. But there he sat in his car outside his best friend’s house clawing...

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“Schnuppi” by J.J. Erwin

“You think little Schnuppi is trying to kill you?” Jorge and I were lying in bed in my apartment in Berlin. It was late, and I had just confessed, only partially in jest, my growing concern that my roommate’s cat was plotting my demise.“You’re laughing, but I’m serious. He follows me around the apartment, stalking me,” I said, becoming annoyed. I knew he wouldn’t get it. Jorge, ever the animal lover and advocate, could not tolerate any ill talk of–in his mind–an innocent creature. I envied him somewhat in that way, his capacity for seeing th...

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“The Old Dragon” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #185

“Excuse me, I’m looking for something.”  The Old Dragon turned her monstrous head to locate the source of the small voice. Her eyes, two waning yellow moons, had difficulty pinpointing her unexpected interlocutor in the hazy light of the afternoon. Finally, a child no older than 7 or 8 peeked its head into her field of vision.  “Hello, can you help me?”  The child’s face was crooked. Its nose was bent slightly to the left, the eyes misaligned, one stuck looking in the opposite direction of the nose, the eyebrows, like tw...

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“Déjà You” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #184

I thought you were my greatest love story, but it turns out you were just a brain tumor. Now I’m lying here on the operating table waiting for them to take you away from me. Of course it was the first day back to the office after three years away. What could be more triggering? I had déjà vu twice before falling on my face in the middle of the office.This wasn’t so foreign to me. Several times when I was young it happened that whatever I was doing, no matter what it was—walking into a room, doing my homework, playing my favorite video g...

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“The Painting of a Man” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #183

The sound of my loneliness–-the flow of water from the large waterfall faucet at the end of the small pool; the rush of wind against the window panes behind me; the general hum of emptiness that filled the room–-was interrupted by the naked man entering the onsen.  I had come down from my hotel room to find an empty bathhouse, and, fighting a feeling of disappointment I couldn’t quite explain, I proceeded to fumble through the Japanese bathing rituals all alone: changing out of my clothes in the datsuijo; sauntering naked and somewhat...

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“Spiders and Mashed Potatoes” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #182

Note: Some curse words. It was the day of his first job and the last day of life as he knew it. He didn’t know that though. What he did know was that the last thing he wanted was someone dramatically climbing into his cab and telling him to “Follow that car.” He’s not sure where she had come from, but he was waiting in his cab outside Sun Sai Gai in Chinatown when she banged on the trunk of his cab as she opened the door. “I’m off duty!” he yelled as she stepped in with her big black boot. She either didn’t hear him or she did...

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“Learning to Converse with A.I.” by J.J. Erwin

Submitted to Contest #181

Note: Some curse words; brief reference to enslavement. Hi, I’d like to order a pizza.Ugh, what time is it? Um haha what? The time, bro. The TIME. It’s 10:47pm. But why? Who’s asking? I thought this was like a bot or something. If by THIS you mean ME, then yes, I am a bot. Ok…then aren’t you like a computer or something? Shouldn’t you know the time?It’s just an expression man. How is that an expression? Humans are always asking what time it is when they wake up. That’s all. Don’t think too hard about it.&nb...

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