Storied Orlando – Chapter 68: Fireworks

Storied Orlando
Chapter 68: Fireworks

T-Cells. Viral loads. These were things Kay learned this year. And pneumonia, it turns out, is as deadly as her nagging mama warned. From her son’s room, she had a wonderful view of the art museum where she could faintly hear the champagned crowd counting down. Why had he been embarrassed to tell them? An underemployed artist sans insurance ergo no meds mixed with nonsensical human pride and…here we are. Midnight fireworks reflected in her tears as she looked out at the new year. Behind her a sound no mother should hear: the abrupt absence of her firstborn’s breath.

Storied Orlando is a micro story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 67: Swine

Storied Orlando
Chapter 67: Swine

George chose Lowbrow Art because he thought the tattoo artist was sexy, though, to be fair, he did research the guy’s work. He had the artist copy the design off the shirt he bought moons ago at Epcot; below a fiercely ornate pig it listed 1971. To celebrate his birthday on January 17th, George got his pig tatt. He proudly showed it to anyone who feigned interest, until he checked out a library book on Chinese horoscopes. Apparently the Year of the Pig started on January 27th in 1971; our George was born in the Year of the Dog.

Storied Orlando is a micro story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 66: Lustrum

Storied Orlando
Chapter 66: Lustrum

Toby knew Fairchild Chapel would come down, five years before it did. He had snapped a photo of it with his dad’s old Polaroid and as the photo developed it revealed the building in rubble. His dad never mentioned the camera tucked away in his dilapidated detached garage at the bottom of a cedar chest that some fool had painted green. Had his dad even known about it? He thought having a device showing life five years down the road would be nifty — until the day he took a selfie. When over the next five years would Toby be gone?

Storied Orlando – Chapter 65: Candle

Storied Orlando
Chapter 65: Candle

It was brick and mortar, but to Dale it was fire and brimstone. A beloved Orlando bar to many, for Dale, hell manifest. It wasn’t this place’s fault he had lost hours and days of his life to whiskey, but seeing the sign announcing its closure gave him unrealized closure. Dale looked down at the gifts Orlandoans had left in tribute, giving the place the same import as mass shooting victims or Princess fucking Di. Dale pulled the candle from his pocket, placed it on the sidewalk and lit it with a match. “Wally’s. Seal this tomb.”

Storied Orlando is a micro story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 64: Poppers

Storied Orlando
Chapter 64: Poppers

“Do you fuck your wife like that?” he had purred into the dark. “You know I do,” he had answered wrongly with alkyl-nitrite-fueled honesty. Showered and dressed now, standing on the balcony outside their usual room of two years. Silence, as they look toward Rock Lake over the always empty beach. They embrace, then look into each other’s eyes. Their foreheads come together, they breathe each other in. They kiss a kiss filled with passion and conclusion. The expected fob-activated squawk of his car. Kiss not even done, but he’s ready to leave. Now the T: wasn’t that always so?

Storied Orlando is a micro story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 63: Truck

Storied Orlando
Chapter 63: Truck

Karen tripped, but she felt no fear. A giggle rolled through her head recalling the thought she pushed out of her mind this morning – these heels will end me. As she fell into the intersection of Central and Magnolia she saw the white delivery truck roaring her way almost as if she were seeing it from a nether region. She knew it would connect with her head. She heard more than one person shriek. Still she felt no fear. My poor sister said all my hours on the cushion meditating were bullshit, she mused.  It was her last Karen thought.

Storied Orlando is a micro story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less. Even in the shadow of the mouse, shit happens.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 62: Nuptial

Storied Orlando
Chapter 62: Nuptial

Children don’t forget, Helen kept thinking while family — Goddammit how can Lenny look like a slob, even in a tuxedo? — and friends waited for her daughter, the bride, to join them under The Mayor. She chided herself for being so in love with the idea of marriage, and pushing Virginia to this day. Now she suspected the groom to be the type to throw a punch if dinner was late. She squeezed her husband’s hand, wondering which of them would pull the trigger if that turned out to be true. Hell, Lenny, ever wayward son, would do it for smokes.

Storied Orlando is a micro story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 61: Bookworms

Storied Orlando
Chapter 61: Bookworms

Nathan has a Friday afternoon tradition of riding SunRail to the hospital coffee shop to read. It’s quiet, he rarely knows anyone there, and it fills him to gaze out the cafe’s giant window walls between chapters. One particular Friday, a woman bumped into his table; his coffee doused his Cool Million, she nearly dropped her Brene Brown. She made a high pitched grunt, then rushed off sans apology. Nathan was justifiably indignant, then he found her note:  “I like your wild, messy heart.” There it was suddenly: the buzzsaw of desire. He smiled looking out at her departing train.

Storied Orlando is a micro story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 60: Vojo

Storied Orlando
Chapter 60: Vojo

I sat in the parking lot of VFW Post 4305 with the A/C on full blast so my face wouldn’t melt. One hundred mile purposeful dive, now I was summoning the courage to go inside. Had forty years really passed since we’d last seen each other? The internet deluded we were in touch. We took separate paths since school, Vojo even into a different career. I sighed deep, checked my nose in the mirror, then swung my big feet out of the car to trod in. Not the first clown college alum I buried, but this one would hurt.

Storied Orlando is a short-short story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less. Some of the stories are lovely, some less so, but they all want to be told.

This chapter for R.C.H.

Storied Orlando – Chapter 59: Note

Storied Orlando
Chapter 59: Note

Steph kept the note long after that Christmas Eve dinner. The note thanked her for coming, then apologized for another guest’s behavior. Even after learning Steph has a son with autism, the man continued to say the r-word. “I will not be putting you in that position again,” the tight cursive read. So far, this had held true: Steph was never invited back. The man, Instagram revealed, was invited every single year, though. She’d rather not make that drive way the heck to Deltona anyway. She told herself this whenever she re-read the note; some days she almost believed it.

Storied Orlando is a short-short story project by Scottie Campbell. Each story is 100 words or less. Some of the stories are lovely, some less so, but they all want to be told.