“I mean, I know she loves me more than him. But I worry, you know, that he’s got too many chains on her – the kids, the house, their foundation. He will just do something to keep us apart.” Ken sat despondent, stuck in the tight corner of a love triangle. Around the table, his friends exchanged meaningful glances and searched for Read More
Category: Trunkated Tales
Trunkated tales demonstrate uncommon pachyderm proverbs that begin with “elephants never…” Each flash fiction tale features at least one elephant in a strikingly human situation. Most tales also occur in a world similar to our own, with the obvious exception of talking pachyderms having a prominent place in human society. Otherwise, trunkated tales create their own realities.
Elephants never have debt
by Kate Dowling “I’m paying!” “No, I’ll pay.” “But it’s my turn!” “No,” I said, hoping it would be the last word. “I’m paying. And it is my turn. Don’t you remember? You paid last month.” “That’s right!” said Delilah. “Cocktails for Sinatra’s birthday. Everyone should celebrate that.” She beamed, but a sudden thought made the smile disappear. “Don’t I Read More
Covet
Why ‘bastard’? Wherefore ‘base’? … I grow, I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards! – Edmund, ‘King Lear’ by William Shakespeare My handlers repeat the proscription like a mantra, whenever my eyes fill with envy: Elephants never covet. A litany of warnings fill their mouths, like a burning acacia tree speaking Pachyderm Commandments. Elephants never foment, never dissent, never… there it Read More
The Lord’s Day
by M. Stone Violet stood before Jonathan on the front porch, barring entry to the house where he was born and raised. “What can I do for you?” she asked with a lazy smile, flicking ash from her cigarette. Jonathan remained at the bottom of the steps. “I came to check on Father. He wasn’t at church this morning.” “He’s Read More
Target
“What do you mean, ‘The servers are all down’? Don’t we have redundancy or something, in case one of them fails?” “Yes, but Ebron knocked all of the servers offline at the same time. They are redundantly down now.” “How did he get in? I thought we temporarily turned off permissions for anyone being let go, just in case they Read More
Connect
She flutters through cyberspace like a ponderous, punctured zeppelin. A couple likes here, some right-swiping there, her trunk trawls the surface of communities in passing. But she never plunges in to join the interactive, GIF-sharing multitudes. Despite their herd backgrounds, elephants never connect. Not like this anyway, she muses. Hashtags and hand-waves, she gets no closer. Then, her interactions begin Read More
Medicate
by Normand Lepine Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, “Where have I gone wrong?” Then a voice says to me, “This is going to take more than one night.” – Charlie Brown, Peanuts (Charles M. Schulz) I was a young bull running with my herd when I hurt my shoulder. They gave me something strong for the pain. Read More
Permit
Steven liked big girls, and Emelia was the biggest beautiful girl around. She had showed up for their date wearing a white sweater and a flared pink skirt that teased all sorts of gray flesh. When he noticed the hairy tip of her tail just poking out in back, his body got excited in all sorts of ways. The date Read More
Desist
by Jack Caseros She tells me she is here to remove obstacles. The nails in the wall, the gaped-mouth hooks, the empty picture frames. The house has had many lives before me. Now they are in the way of her baby elephant painting. The painting is life-sized. When Shreya drags it inside the screen door flaps against the canvas like Read More
Portend
The figurines had not failed, and bore no connection to his troubles. Others could keep their superstitious beliefs about pachyderm statues. He simply liked elephants. For instance, he had not placed trumpeting elephants by the bed to ensure passion and fertility. No, they just complemented the wood. Factors outside the bedroom had ruined their love life and prevented the reconciling balm of Read More