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#293 On the Go

Whenever I commute, I always bring a book to help me pass the time. These days, I’ve been enjoying short story collections set in faraway places that make my long journeys feel like their own little adventures.

With that in mind, let’s write some stories inspired by transportation and movement. Our official contest guidelines are still 1,000 to 3,000 words per story, but for this week’s contest, I’m inviting you to draw inspiration from flash fiction and stay as close to the lower limit as possible. With fewer words and limitless possibilities, how far will your imagination travel?

🥇 Winner

I Left the Baby in Dimension X

Winner of Contest #293 🏆

There's a baby in the back of the glider, but it's not mine. Sure, she looks like my baby, but my baby never cries when we're cruising through the Kuiper belt. Quite the opposite. Cruising through the solar system's outer reaches is sometimes the only way I can get her to fall asleep. But this baby is wailing like an electric guitar. And if there's any doubt, then there's the smell, or the lack of it. My baby farts like a race horse. No filtration system known to man can completely dilute it. Weaker noses would rush for the airlock, but I'm ...

106 likes 115 comments 115
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⭐️ Shortlisted

The Inheritance Car

Shortlisted for Contest #293 ⭐️

Rain pattered on the midnight blue hood of the 1967 Cadillac DeVille. Eliza Thorne sat behind the wheel, key hovering near the ignition, as water streamed down the windshield in rivulets that distorted the view of her mother's Boston brownstone. The funeral had ended hours ago. The other mourners had long since departed for their hotels or homes, leaving only Eliza and this car—her inheritance. She knew what would happen when she turned the key. Family legend was explicit: the first time a new owner drove the Cadillac alone, the previous own...

33 likes 17 comments 17
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This week's prompts

Set your entire story in a car, train, or plane.

Short Story – 146 stories

Center your story around someone who realizes they’ve left something behind.

Dramatic – 53 stories

Write about someone who strikes up a conversation with a stranger during a flight.

Short Story – 47 stories

Start or end your story with someone looking out a car or train window.

Dramatic – 91 stories

Write a story with the line “I’m late!” or “We’re late!”

Short Story – 43 stories

Stories

I Left the Baby in Dimension X

Winner of Contest #293 🏆

There's a baby in the back of the glider, but it's not mine. Sure, she looks like my baby, but my baby never cries when we're cruising through the Kuiper belt. Quite the opposite. Cruising through the solar system's outer reaches is sometimes the only way I can get her to fall asleep. But this baby is wailing like an electric guitar. And if there's any doubt, then there's the smell, or the lack of it. My baby farts like a race horse. No filtration system known to man can completely dilute it. Weaker noses would rush for the airlock, but I'm ...

106 likes 115 comments 115
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Blame it on the Universe

Submitted to Contest #293

"I'm late!" I finished drying off, splashed some cologne, smeared deodorant, and brushed my teeth. She expected me to be there to help calm her nerves. How in the world did I lose track of time? I'm never late. I jumped into my clothes and dashed out the door. I tried starting my car but had forgotten my keys. What's wrong with me? I never forget my keys. Between losing track of time and forgetting my keys, I was beginning to believe the universe was trying to tell me something. I don't believe in coincidences. Keeping the speedometer under ...

63 likes 57 comments 57
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Left Behind in Fukushima

Submitted to Contest #293

I’m sitting on a coach bus at 7 a.m., staring out the window, scanning the streets for tourists. This isn’t where I thought I’d be. Not after graduating with a Master’s in International Relations, fluent in two languages, and ready to take on the world. But here I am.Outside, the street is quiet. I spot him—our last passenger, a foreigner in a blue T-shirt and shorts, looking as if he’s searching for something. I jump out of the bus, waving him over, holding my clipboard. It’s my way of taking control. A trick I learned from my manager.He ap...

44 likes 36 comments 36
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Go!

Submitted to Contest #293

The huge psychological relief of looking out of the aircraft window on the Bangkok airport taxiway and seeing the next landing aircraft with the dark green tail, the familiar logo of a palm tree and crossed swords, was one of those moments in life, when miracles do happen for insignificant people like me. Someone had looked after my family and me. Especially since I had been so foolish. It was an ambitious plan, and not without its obvious risks. The logistical problem can only be summarized as follows. A family spread out in different parts...

42 likes 33 comments 33
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Wing Woman

Submitted to Contest #293

    “God, I hate flying”     I look out the window of the 747 so foolishly boarded in my rush to get cross country as quickly as possible. We are flying through some dark clouds so there is little to see. The old familiar fear rises in the pit of my stomach as I try to push it back. I have to maintain myself. Don’t start to panic. Nothing’s going to happen. I try to flood myself with calm, even as I’m white knuckling the arm rest. The four Jack Daniel’s I had before the flight aren’t working. The ...

41 likes 25 comments 25
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Reflections

Submitted to Contest #293

The car hummed beneath him, a mechanical heartbeat counting down the miles. Martin Ellery watched the world stream past his window—a blur of autumn trees and small towns that would soon exist only in memory. The handcuffs bit into his wrists, cold metal against skin that would know no other touch for decades to come. Life without parole. The words still echoed in the hollow chamber of his chest. “Beautiful country,” said the marshal sitting beside him, a man whose name Martin hadn’t bothered to remember. “Shame you won’t be seeing it again.”...

36 likes 18 comments 18
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A Man Died on the Train Today

Submitted to Contest #293

A man died on the train today. I have never wanted to see a dead body, or to ease the passing of someone so close to the angels. I know how to do CPR, but I am wary of performing such an intimate and selfless act in the service of another.He was in the opposite aisle, one seat down and facing me. These are the people you study the most on a train, because to observe someone directly opposite you is so boldly confrontational. I have seen him before because we both favour the same carriage, although it’s ridiculous, because they’re all alike.I...

35 likes 38 comments 38
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The Inheritance Car

Shortlisted for Contest #293 ⭐️

Rain pattered on the midnight blue hood of the 1967 Cadillac DeVille. Eliza Thorne sat behind the wheel, key hovering near the ignition, as water streamed down the windshield in rivulets that distorted the view of her mother's Boston brownstone. The funeral had ended hours ago. The other mourners had long since departed for their hotels or homes, leaving only Eliza and this car—her inheritance. She knew what would happen when she turned the key. Family legend was explicit: the first time a new owner drove the Cadillac alone, the previous own...

33 likes 17 comments 17
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Philosophy 101

Submitted to Contest #293

Philosophy 101"Are we there yet?"Bobby was bored. He had stared at SpongeBob all morning and there was nothing to see out the window. Just flat land, green grass, blue sky and cows. Big cows that mama said were buffaloes. But she was wrong. Buffaloes had wings. But she just laughed when he pointed that out to her.“Are we there yet?” He whined from the back seat for the umpteenth time. While swinging his legs he could reach the back of mama’s seat. She had asked him not to do it several times. But it felt so good. Thump, thump, thump.“Not yet...

33 likes 30 comments 30
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The midnight ride

Submitted to Contest #293

It was a dark night, one of those without any stars to look at and a dark moon. Not even the Universe was interested in what was about to happen. There was no spotlight over me nor a guiding light to help me escape. As I ran to my car, one of my heels broke, and I twisted my ankle. I took out the shoes and limped to the door while looking for the keys in my purse. Damn big fancy bags. This whole scenario would have been much easier with jeans and sneakers, but that was not something I could change, and dreaming about better times would not h...

33 likes 40 comments 40
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The Squidge That Ate Paris

Submitted to Contest #293

“Vite! Déshabillez-vous! Vite!”Calla St. Germaine barely suppressed a laugh as Madame Beauchamp, pendulous breasts and rolls of fat jiggling, pushed her corseted gown down over thunderous hips. She was glaring with a face like a simmering bouillabaisse, her once elaborate chignon now a frizzy mess on her head. “Merde, keep that thing away from me,” said Calla, side-stepping around the suddenly nude facilitator, who wobbled while slipping off her pumps in a shadowy alleyway near the Seine. “That’s gonna need more than a hedge trimmer now...

32 likes 33 comments 33
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Coffee & Cogs

Submitted to Contest #293

The scent of burnt coffee lingered in the air, twinned with the ever-present miasma of coal smoke and sweat. Miles wiped his brow with the corner of his apron and leaned against the counter of his tiny coffee stand, nestled between one of the roaring engine rooms and the rust-stained barracks of the Titania’s lower deck.  His stand wasn’t much - just a battered iron cart welded in place, with a sputtering boiler and a dented tin sign that read Miles’ Brews: Strong as Steel. It was the only place workers could get a cup of coffee before ...

31 likes 12 comments 12
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A Pinch of Stars

Submitted to Contest #293

Benedict Augustus Reardon had the misfortune of discovering he was in possession of magical powers whilst aboard a speeding train. A man who believed every situation deserved a singular, well-selected adjective, his exclamation upon turning the morning toast of every traveler in the breakfast car into a parliament of owls: “Untimely!” “I say sir,” declared the official in the dining car, a burly man named Franklin who bore a brusque moustache, “An impolite time to be practicing magic while people have their breakfasts.” “My apologies,” Bened...

30 likes 16 comments 16
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Lucien in the Sky with Diamonds

Submitted to Contest #293

I really should have realized how vindictive Heather could be. What is that saying? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. When she found out I was seeing someone else and had traded her in for the other woman – a younger, prettier model, I just know that it was that very moment that she decided to exact her revenge. Unfortunately, Heather knows all of my secrets, including the biggest one of all – the fact that I am a world renowned jewel thief who has recently completed one of the largest heists of the century – the theft of the Weat...

28 likes 16 comments 16
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Orphan Train

Submitted to Contest #293

The children swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the train as it went through the countryside, suddenly slowed, and finally came to a halt with a screech. Laura pushed through the crowd to stick her head through the window looking around at the vast emptiness of the land. Beyond the small station there was nothing to see in any direction. “Do not get placed here, Johnny Miller. Ya hear me?” She turned to look into the eyes of the boy traveling with her, the boy she had known her entire life in the city. “It ain’t my choice....

27 likes 22 comments 22
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