Valerie Kaufman

“Jonah's Hoards” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #185

Jonah didn’t know what to do with his hoards of negative emotions. He was considering moving them into boxes and taking them to the local shredding center near his cave on the Upper West Side.      He looked around the cave where he had spent most of his adult life. It looked like many other dragons’ caves, except that it was piled high with stacks of papers he could not seem to get rid of.  In his many writings, he had explored his negative emotions, especially his self-doubt.      &nbs...

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“Always Late” by Valerie Kaufman

She was five feet tall, sixty-years-old, and weighed less than a hundred pounds. She wasn’t pretty but her face beamed with happiness. She wore her red hair long, occasionally piling it on top of her head. Her favorite attire was sweatpants with an elastic waistband and a loose T-shirt. Comfort was important to her. So was doing exactly as she pleased.            She was a new friend of mine, and she always arrived late to get-togethers.       &nbs...

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“Romeo and Juliet for Adults” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #53

“My high school students love Romeo and Juliet,” she told the library check-out person a week before the library closed. “What do they love about it?” asked a stranger standing next to her. She noticed the liveliness in his eyes, did a quick survey of his handsome face, then paused briefly at his lips. His eyes made the same trip, from her eyes, across her face, to her lips. She felt surprised, delighted, nervous — all at the same time. “What do my students like about the play?” she asked, thinking out loud. “They like that Romeo and Juliet ...

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“Family Portrait” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #51

A blue-eyed, elderly gentleman, with a yarmulke neatly pinned to the crown of his head, stands on a New York City subway platform. His eyes emit a dim light, partially illuminating a small area of the poorly lit, subterranean station where he stands with his granddaughter. Nearby, a few commuters stand listlessly, their eyes glued to the tracks, their necks craning for the sight of an approaching train. The man’s gaze falls on the subway platform, with its dark stains from a million shoes and coffee cup spills. He thinks of his clean, tidy ...

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“Stage Fright” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #50

I look good for my age, which is 50. The same age as my stand-up comedy teacher, Peter. But Peter, who I’m crazy about—says his 30-ish student Clarissa, who he’s crazy about—looks like she’ll never be my age. Peter texted me that he thought Clarissa was “pretty” in the beginning, but then she became “hugely, fantastically pretty!” Which is men’s language for really liking a woman. So I joke, “Your high forehead suggests intelligence, but first impressions can be wrong.”  Peter and I have not outgrown the childish practice of making f...

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“A Writing Affair” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #46

I am anxious as I enter my Saturday morning writing class, the last to arrive in the brightly decorated middle school classroom. I have written a story that barely disguises the crush I have on my teacher, John. I have changed his looks and made him older, but the narrator is me. Surely everyone will know.Maybe they know already. Maybe I want John to. As I read aloud my story, my voice cracks now and then, billboarding my nervousness. “Write what you know,” John told us the first day. “You cannot, until you have written for a ...

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“Unafraid” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #43

I scary people easy. Got skin as dark as a bedroom when the nightmares come. Eyes that look blank.  I also talk to God all the time. Don’t do it out loud, like some crazy person. Just always got a second conversation going. Like right now, a sweet-faced, young thing sit down next to me on the plane. I look at her, say, “How ya doing?” Joe once say, “Look at someone when you talking.” So I raise my eyes to the Lord. Say, “Lord, let her keep that smile!” Eyes up, eyes down. Keep talking to God, while I talk to other people. Right now, old...

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“The End of the Tease” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #42

                                 Inside the dance hall, a tall, unsmiling stranger took my hand inside his much larger one and gently pulled me through the couples waiting for the music to start. When the blast of Duke Ellington’s trumpets announced a swing dance, we swung to the left, then the right. Then he raised his left arm for me to pass beneath, and his double-breasted jac...

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“At Sixteen” by Valerie Kaufman

Submitted to Contest #29

He was six-foot-tall and broad-shouldered, but I was blind to his charms. His doeful brown eyes stared dreamily at me in class behind studious-looking glasses, but his oversized nose seemed to push me away. The fact that he liked me made him foolish, since I wasn’t worthy of anybody’s attention. But he was smart in school, and well-mannered, so I told him yes, I’d go with him to see the musical playing that weekend at the open-air theatre of a nearby beach park.            I had dre...

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