Pete Zenz

“The Longest Night” by Pete Zenz

It was Christmas Eve eve. December 23. I guess, technically, it was actually Christmas Eve when Dave had the dream. It was the night of December 23 when he went to bed, but the dreamed happened in the wee hours of the morning of the 24th. Dave had never been one to put much stock into dreams. He didn’t try to figure out the meaning of every part of every dream. The biggest reason for this is that Dave always had the weirdest, wackiest dreams. Therefore, he conjectured, they couldn’t possibly have any relation to reality. But the night of t...

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“Christmas Tea” by Pete Zenz

It was the day after Christmas and Lilith was preparing hot tea for herself and her friend, Gretchen, whom she had invited over. It had been exactly a year since they had last gotten together. It wasn’t exactly a yuletide tradition; this was only the second time. It was only the third time they had met altogether. The first time they met was the summer before the previous Christmas. The annual “Summer Street-Fair Days” was taking place in downtown Hawkins, North Dakota. Gretchen was tending her “Psychic” booth when Lilith happened to mosey ...

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“The Christmas Date” by Pete Zenz

Submitted to Contest #81

Josh McGweer didn’t date much. Actually, he didn’t date at all. He went on a double date once, with his kid sister, Katie, who was only sixteen at the time. Josh was nineteen then. Their parents wouldn’t let Katie date alone, so she convinced a friend to be Josh’s date. It was a disaster. Josh was clumsy, socially awkward, and not very bright. If that wasn’t bad enough, he dressed like an early seventies glam-rock star. He thought that was really cool and would somehow make up for his other babe-deflecting features. Like I said, he wasn’t ve...

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“Worst Christmas Ever” by Pete Zenz

Submitted to Contest #41

It was Christmas morning at the Merten family household. Mom and Dad (Tom and Kate Merten) were in the kitchen making pancakes for breakfast. The kids - Felix, Brittney, and Louis (aged 8, 5, and 4, respectively) – were crawling around the tree, seeing which packages were whose, comparing how many each had, and trying to guess what treasure might be in each ornately wrapped box. The kids had been begging for weeks for a puppy; three puppies, preferably. Their hopes were high, as Kate had been dropping little suggestive hints that such a gra...

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“To Hell In A Handbasket” by Pete Zenz

Submitted to Contest #28

It was early 1992. I was 29 years old and up to this point I had been batting about .001 when it came to girls/women. I say it that way because it started as early 2nd grade. In any case, this was at a time in my life when my only goals were getting high and finding a female companion. Unfortunately, I was a thousand times more successful at the former goal. I am a fanatical music lover. Since 1984, after I joined the Marine Corps, I had started collecting music, always expanding on my tastes. While I am not a huge fan of Opera, I do like so...

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“Almost A Lost Cause” by Pete Zenz

Submitted to Contest #25

Elliot had a bad habit of forming bad habits. He didn’t let that bother him…most of the time, anyway. It did, however, bother other people. That didn’t bother him so much either…until now. Now it was crushing him. Now is when he wanted to be a “knight in shining armor” instead of an obese, clumsy, booger-picking nerd who could only be comfortable in sweatpants and t-shirts.            Priscilla was new in town. Her promotion to Midwest District Sales Director of Faux Fur Sure, Inc. had n...

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