Category 2022 SS Prompt 1: Jewel

Invited out on a date, Maggie doesn’t quite see the attraction. She can’t imagine that she’s going to be the gossip of her small town by the end of the night.

Beth was standing in the kitchen, humming to herself as she buttered the bread for the toasted sandwiches, when she glanced up and registered four men standing in the doorway holding handguns pointed at her. For a few moments her…...

Uncut diamonds can look like worthless glass to the inexpert eye - one of life's lessons?

Moon McFarlane was the youngest and most successful agony aunt in the history of the LA Tribune. Usually, she managed to give rather good advice from a stock of psychology books she had read at college. Being rather mature for…...

I didn’t know why he invited me. And I didn’t know why I had come. But still, I was there, in a bad-fitting hand-me-down tuxedo in front of a palace. The security guard’s eyes glanced me up and down twice,…...

A daughter visits her aging mother in a nursing home.

The Koster river coursed along one hundred and twenty foot high stone cliffs through the canyon...