mgmspeakfiction

       I have always loved the west. The photos above are from my former home in Arizona. The top one is of the wild horses that lived in our area. The sunset was taken from my front yard. It was a place of beauty and wilderness and I will never forget my time there. Sadly, there are things that happen in the west that I am not thrilled about. This story was inspired by my time in the west.      That damn rooster woke me up again. It's not his fault, he's just doing what he does. I had my shower and threw on my favorite jeans, my blue t-shirt, and my boots. I fed Katie and she wagged her tail appreciatively as I put on the coffee. I was heading out to Renee's this morning. Dan had already left, and I was just fine with that.      As Katie and I went outside the sky and ground were washed in golden light as the sun was rising behind the mountains in front of my ranch. We got in my truck and headed to the res. Renee lived on the Ak-Chin re...

  From 75 word or less flash fiction contest      He limped up to me, filthy, a different shoe on each foot. When he looked at me, he looked right through me.       “Can I have a dollar? I need to get on the bus."       I checked, but I rarely had cash. I handed him the found dollar.       As he got on the bus, bursts of color shrouded him. He stood up, smiling. My dollar and the bus vanished.

  Carol looked at herself in the mirror. Her red shift dress made her skin glow. For once, she felt beautiful. She had just finished her video. It had taken her a long time to complete, but she didn’t want to let her viewers down. She started Thrifty Goddess a year ago. It was a channel about upcycling thrift store clothing. She always had an eye for fashion. She wanted to show people that you could enjoy clothing without spending a lot of money.       She went downstairs to grab breakfast before work.  Grandma was in the kitchen, her mint green robe hung loosely on her bony frame. Her hair was in curlers. She turned on the burner to light another cigarette.       “Well look who’s here, sleeping beauty.” She muttered under her breath as she glared at Carol.       “I was up late working on my video” Carol replied.      Grandma poured herself another cup of black coffee, “Well, that’s just stupid, waste o...

Do we criminalize being alive? No, no of course not, but what exactly do we do? The homeless are fine, over there. As long as we don't have to see them it's ok. Do check out the link to the anti-homeless architecture below. 😞      A friend of mine and I were discussing tiny home communities. Would you donate space in your yard if you had the room? No? What if we put them all in one spot, well, haven't we done enough of that historically?  https://kitchissippi.com/2018/07/26/kitchissippi-ottawa-shanty-town/       Nationally, homelessness continues to grow. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are estimated to be 554,000 homeless people in the United States. I suspect that is a low estimate. That is about the size of the population of Albuquerque, NM.      The weather was getting nicer. Dottie, my Dalmatian, and I would probably be able to hang out on the corner most of the day today. She needed some...

       Lisa walked through the field to find the perfect spot. The wind caught her dark hair and it spun around her face like a dervish. She smiled as she noticed couples kissing and preparing to set their hopes aloft. Families also surrounded her. The children giggled and ran around as they waited to release the lanterns. There were a few people alone. She wondered if they were here for the same reason she was.             She held the thin paper in her hands. Did it symbolize hope? Yes, but more than that. She lit the flame and let go of the lantern. It soared and swayed in the breeze with all of the others. She took a deep breath and let it out as she imagined releasing things in her life that no longer served her. Hundreds of lights soared above the crowd. All of the lanterns had been released with purpose, but that purpose was different for everybody.              Lisa thought of the...

   It was early. Rays of the sun’s light were beginning to peek through the windows. The bag on his shoulder felt heavy as he shifted from side to side. The day would be hot. He already felt the sticky air kissing his skin. The sweat from his forehead dripped onto his dark brow as he peered in the kitchen hoping to avoid her. She was in the kitchen as she was every morning making breakfast for the day. He used to love the sound of her moving around in the kitchen and the delightful aroma as the bacon would cook. Her blonde hair was streaked with gray and she was wearing a floral dress that fell well below her knee. It was the same thing she wore every day for as long as he could remember.     “Is that you Brian?”     He ducked back into the hallway. Leaving quietly was the best way to do it. There would be no point in having the same argument again. He had tried to explain so many times. They would listen and he thought they understood and then they would t...

  Photo by Pat Kwon on Unsplash          She arrived in Boston on a rainy night in November. It was cold and she was dressed in a thin tank top and short skirt. She had no coat, no luggage. A burly man with graying hair held a sign with her name on it, Nurul. She had grown up in Indonesia. Both of her parents were dead and her aunt and uncle sent her to Boston to work in customer service.      She went with the man and they drove through a dark neighborhood to a house that looked like it needed repairs, but she might have been mistaken, it was difficult to see in the dark. He showed her the room and she went to bed so that she would be ready for work the next day.     Daylight invaded the room and she awoke to find that there were many beds in the room. Many Asian teens, like herself, occupied the beds. The customer service place must be busy to need all of these people.      One of the girls came over to her. Sh...

   Photo by Clifford Photography on Unsplash       Cryptocurrency had high validation standards. This put many people in the position of leaving money unclaimed when they couldn't access their wallets. The video authentication helped, but even with that technology, the problem had gotten worse over the last several years. When the coin split, it only doubled the amount of abandoned currency.               People tried to fight the security regulations in the courts, but they didn't stand a chance. The powers controlling the medium were too powerful to make concessions. Local governments wanted to treat the lost cryptocurrency as unclaimed property so that they could seize it. Finally, after some of the cases reached the supreme court, President Marsten offered a different solution.           The assets would not be seized. Anyone who could hack the accounts could claim the money. Of course, ha...

  Photo by vadim kaipov on Unsplash       Deirdre hadn't been sleeping much. The virus stuff had made her feel isolated and when she closed her eyes every night she could not sleep. She started taking mild sedatives like Chamomile and Valerian. They didn't help. She smoked some weed, but that didn't help either. She ended up just drinking a lot of coffee to make it through her days.        All the days were blending into each other. As she closed her eyes again to try to sleep she heard a soft knock at her door. She sat up and grabbed her robe. Nobody was supposed to be visiting. This time of night, even before the shelter in place order, nobody would dare show up on her doorstep so late. She dragged herself into the living room. As she peered through the peephole, she saw a guy standing there in a hoodie, smoke blowing out from his mouth as he puffed on a cigarette. She definitely did not know this guy.      "What do you ...