Short Story Awesomeness

Your short stories are seriously awesome. I'm glad now I'm not the only one who gets to read them...

They tell me I am happy (Dakota S, 3rd)

With a sooty rag he scrubbed away at the filmy glass, and sneezed a few times in the process. (Alex W, 6th) 

“Finding where you belong in this world is one of the most difficult things we face as humans.” It’s written on the wall above my head, I don’t know who wrote it but it’s been there longer than I have. I always thought it was written by one of the Firsts. (Ethan K, 6th)

He had now been walking the basement for hours. (Jack B, 3rd)

A sigh escapes her. A breath of fog appears on the window, clouding the morning. With trembling fingers, she removes the key from the ignition. A beat, a pause, and she sits, her fingers clenched around the solidity. (Annabel N, 1st)

I looked out my window to see my grandma sitting in the back of a red convertible with hot red flames painted across the sides. (Ben G, 1st)

It was November of 2006. She woke up to the bright glimmers of the snow slowly seeping through her window. Friday, she thought to herself. It’s Friday. Something was tugging at her. She couldn’t put her finger on it. (Molly S., 3rd)

Once upon a time there was a girl named Victoria. Wait, let me start over. The beginning is used in fairy tales and this isn't close to one. (Karina R, 6th)

The kiddos loved drawing so damn much that they started anunderground Draw Club.
1st rule of Draw Club, Don’t talk about Draw Club
2nd rule of Draw Club, (You get the joke) (Dan W, 6th)

It’s high noon in a small, generic western town.  (Robert C, 3rd)

He winked at me as I boarded the train and passed through the men’s section to the back of the bus where my wife was waiting for me. (Hannah K, 3rd)

Today, I found a cave. Not just any cave. This one is darker than anything I have seen in my life. (Keenan D, 6th)

Liz had been alone for ten months now. (Jordan R, 1st)

All the readings seemed normal, I thought as I recorded my findings into the database. My cat, Meep, meowed next to my feet, begging for food. (Ginger B, 1st)

New York pulsed in the morning, sirens its pacemaker, its arteries more congested than Paula Deen’s. (Daniel I, 6th)

Anybody would have pinned him as just a tourist walking down the streets of Spain. (Robert W, 3rd)

As the day begins, Mike awakes from all his sneaker boxes collapsing and his alarm clock going off continuously. (Francisco A, 6th)

They left me. 
The mothership took off with my brothers and sisters and they just left me behind. (Josh B, 3rd)

You open your eyes, a bright stark white rapidly engulfed by pitch black nothingness.  (Rodrigo G, 1st)

About two decades ago the Kingdom found its new bounty and it came in the form of a new dimension through a door in the ruins of the city of Obscurity.   (Gaurav B, 1st)

There was no light in her eyes. She stared pointedly at the table. Even her tears were long gone. (Haley Rae, 1st)

On one half of the world the day was perfectly fine; on the other the night was one of the most peaceful one could hope for.  (Will B, 6th)

Flash Fiction: Your Furniture Arrived this Morning

I kicked off of the ground and headed to the sky. This time, I would go higher. The bright blue sky and the sunshine beckoned me. No clouds in my way.

Below me I saw the trails I hiked on sunny afternoons like this, traveling beneath me in speeds greater than I can traverse them on foot. But the ground was not my focus--up up up I flew.

Today the skies were not empty. I waved to a man flying a collection of furniture through the sky. He waved back as I realized that the chest of drawers he was sitting upon looked a lot like the one I fished my socks out of that morning.

And was that my sofa trailing behind him?

No matter. My focus was the sky. And the warm air gently caressing my skin and fluttering my hair. And how my stomach leapt each time I angled upward and gained yet more altitude.

But was I gaining altitude or losing it?

In the distance I saw the city materialize on the horizon, the skyscrapers and the wide roads that lead to them.

The metal and glass structures pulled my feet to them like a magnet, but I wasn't quite sure why.

I landed softly on the top of a skyscraper and kicked off again to continue my flight. But instead of up, I floated down. I landed on a railing for a balcony and kicked up again to only float slowly down. Down to where I could see people through windows talking and working, down to where the sunlight faded, down to where the noise of the city engulfed the silence of flying through the air.

Down to where the sky was only a small patch at the top of the buildings. I could only see it when I craned my head upward. I could reach for it but my feet still pulled me gently down.

I landed on the sidewalk and took several steps forward as I looked around to determine where I was. I nearly ran into a man, so I twirled around quickly and walked in the other direction.

He followed. I walked. He followed.

I stopped and turned to face him. "Don't touch me!" I yelled, pointing at him angrily to hide the fear that was spreading in me.

"I think this is where you're supposed to be," he said simply.

Silence.

He added, "Your furniture arrived this morning."