One Hundred Words: A Collection of Short Stories

By Michael E Smidts

"Within these pages, a wondrous realm awaits - somewhere between once upon a time and happily ever after - to become a part of who you are, an eternal refuge absorbed into your soul."

This debut collection of short stories from author Michael E

• Language: English
• Publisher: Storeylines Press
• Release date: Oct 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781738274734

Michael E Smidts

Michael is a devoted husbandand father of two youngchildren. He lives in thepicturesque town of Stratford,Ontario, Canada, where heenjoys the theatre along with thecultural and culinary scenes.When he's not writing, he canbe found sketching, painting,reading the classics, co-riding thetandem bike, and managing his fantasy hockey team.The inspiration for Michael's stories are drawn from hischildhood experiences, the arts and literature, historical!gures, current world events, and personal joys and traumas.Michael hopes that by pursuing his passion for writing,he can inspire his children to chase their own dreams.

Book preview

One Hundred Words

ONE HUNDRED WORDS

A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES

MICHAEL E. SMIDTS

Storeylines Press

Copyright © 2023 by Michael E. Smidts

Cover design/concept by Kate and Mike Smidts

Cover photo from Pexels — Karolina Grabowska

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Storeylines Press is the publisher of this work. It holds the sole, perpetual, and exclusive license with respect to this work and any derivatives thereof on a worldwide basis. Therefore, any interest in this work should be directed to the publisher at [e-mail]

Land Acknowledgment

Storeylines Press operates on the lands of the Anishinabek, Haudenosauneega Confederacy, and Anishinaabe, Treaty 29, 1827. As settlers to this area, we acknowledge the rights and importance of the Indigenous people and their importance to this region, nation, and its culture, as well as their unjust treatment by the Canadian government and settlers past and present.

to Kate

there aren’t enough words

CONTENTS

Prologue

1. ESTIVAL SOLSTICE

Last Lap

Star Catcher

Red Night

Swimming Lessons

Light Hands

Pirouette à Terre

He Hath Borne Me On His Back a Thousand Times

Bloodletting

Precious Illusion

One of Those Days

Gone Adrift

A Brave Farewell

Do I

Timeless Hymn

Duck Test

Yuquot

When Shakespeare Came to Town

I’ll Be Seeing You

Time Cab: Mourning Rays

Inanimate Objection

The Gentleman’s Guide

Poor Reception

A Novel Idea

A Crown Upon Thy Tiny Head

Goddess of Rain

Written in Stone

Ebb and Flow

Make Believe

The Idol Pallbearer

Union Man

Shooting Stars

To The Beedoh

The Final Chapter

Sitting For a Masterpiece

Xenophobic Trolls

The Whittlers

King

Loose Connection

Consolation Prize

The Sycophant

Fairy Lights

Tattered Lace

The Bridge Builder

The Future’s Not Ours To See

Pull of the Tide

The Good Pariah

A Human Touch

Something Borrowed

Taking a Stand

The Holy Sweater

The Goldfish

Heavenly Missives

Interlude

2. AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

The Fall Fair

The Comet’s Coma

The Comet’s Nucleus

The Comet’s Tale

No Robots Allowed

Red Knight

Beautiful Me

Fox

Pillow Talk

The Lady’s Maid

Full-Bodied

Masters of Misdirection

Rape of the Priestess

The Dinner Guests

No Seconds

NPD Ancestry

Crying Fowl

The Chair

Just in Time

The Stranger

The New Neighbour

Ghost Story

Angel Fish

Fair Game

Night at the Opera

An Empty Shell

The Behemoth

The Xylophonist

The First Thanksgiving

The Water That Flows Over Her Hands

Best Friends

Quietude

The Portrait of Us

Time Cab: Lest We Forget

The King’s Ire

The Golden Afternoon

A Royal Pane of Glass

The Cove

Branch Line Junction

The Essence of Autumn

Overexposed Aura

Petri Terra

Party Favours

Last Meal

Red Café

Dear Diary

Supernova

Modern Prometheus

Immortal Art

Yankee Drummer Boy

The Wishing Star

20/20

Sacrilege

Entr’acte

3. HIBERNAL SOLSTICE

Lunchtime at the Basement Club

Resolutions

Overtime

Golden

The Dung Beetle

Prince Charming

At The Santa Cruz Resort

The Nimrod

Cry For Their Cold, Dead Hands

Begotten

Venetian Bauta

A Black Fate for the Donnellys

The Legends and Me

My Gift

Re-Identification

Sweet Chariot

The Englishman’s Spaniel

The Ravages of Revenge

Under Oath

Capture the King

The Thimbleriggers

Family Heirlooms

The Joke Rodent Experience

Slain Dolls

Auld Acquaintance

Absolved

Time Cab: Road to Ruin

Lingering in Limbo

Red Fight

Today’s Special

Frostbyte

Déjà Vu

The Zombie’s Misadventure

A Scientific Experience

The Perceptive Scrivener

Candy Hearts

Frequencies

The Last Duet

’Twas the Night

General Winter

The Beginning of the End

Cause and Effect

The Perfect Date

An Unconventional Announcement

Time Cab: Living In the Past

Third Wheel

Before the Blizzard

An Onslaught of Puerility

The Vigilante

A Scene of Naïveté

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry

Forget-Me-Nots

Intermission

4. VERNAL EQUINOX

O Friends, No More of These Sounds!

Experiencing Turbulence

Asleep Beneath the Sand

The Amulet

Morning Routine

Depreciating Art

Canis Lupus Matriarch

A Deep Immersion

Recalled to Life

Art Appreciation

Red Flight

Dandelion Row

Monsters Under the Bed

Touché

Private Eye

keeping_it_real.com

Metamorphosis

The Kid

Across the Falls

Foggy Reflection

Waxing Crescent

Paramours of Fancy

Pomp and Circumstance

Everest

Floriography: The Language of Flowers

The Butterfly’s Sting

Salacious Games

The Marionette and the Manikin

Nights Code

Monstrous Creatures

The Seventh Signature

The Fountain of Youth

The Wren and the Marrow Bone

Zealots

Painting Lessons

Portraiture

Cats and Dogs

Replicide

Daisies and Shillings

Prejudice Pond

Dining Out

Vision

The Night Café

Hidden Away

The Cherished Hours

Hypathena’s Tomb

The Impressionist

An Alternate Ending

A Noble Call

Time Cab: The Traveller

Seven Minutes

Silence

Epilogue

Fin

Acknowledgments

About the Author

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

~ Emily Dickinson

PROLOGUE

"O nce upon a time, he exclaimed, eyes wide, his index finger pointing to the sky. That’s how we’ll start it!"

His brother pondered the idea. It’s unique. Precise and obscure; simple, yet clever. A range of expressions crossed his face and betrayed his inner dialogue, but finally he declared: Brilliant. I love it!

Grabbing the quill from its holder, he stabbed into the inkwell with careless zeal, the violent displacement of ink sprinkling the page, and wrote down the words.

Their matching grins radiated with delight as they admired the beauty of that penned line.

Now what? his brother asked.

1. ESTIVAL SOLSTICE

Image of a stylized sun

LAST LAP

Breathing in the track’s scent, she’s eager for the gate to drop. Her rider strokes her mane.

Last race, old girl — ready?

Feeling his weight lifted and legs tightened, she anticipates the pistol blast.

A dozen horses burst forth from a cloud of dust like a torrid sea. Instantaneously, the pack pulls away from her.

But, instead of the usual tap on her hindquarters, she feels a gentle caress along her neck.

Approaching the finish line, the track is bare.

Alone and in her glory, her rider whispers in her ear, Fly, old girl.

And she keeps on running, free.

STAR CATCHER

Memories were sparse. It’d been so long since her mother fell asleep. But she’d never forgotten her mother’s final comforting words: As long as the heavens shine, I will be with you.

Everything in nature reminded her of her mother, especially the stars.

A faint, floating glow broke her reverie. She’d never seen one so close. Approaching quietly, carefully, she ensnared the firefly in the canister and ran.

Papa, I caught a star!

Well done, my child. Cautiously receiving the illuminated canister. You brought life.

Steadily inserting it into the chest cavity, they watched.

Suddenly, her mother’s eyes blinked open.

RED NIGHT

Strained by the child's weight,