Don't Touch That
Author : Cheryl Wood Ruggiero
You’re right. I really should not have touched it.
I certainly know better. My mother always told me not to touch odd things I found in the woods. I told my own children the same, and my grandchildren.
But it was so shiny. And so smooth. And when I touched the green fallen leaf it lay on, it quivered like a quarter-sized pool of mercury. I had to touch it. I just had to.
And of course, it spread itself up my finger, which only looked silver plated for about half a minute.
I don’t feel any different. Haven’t I always had the smooth complexion of a young girl? Very smooth. Almost luminous. Haven’t I always been able to pour myself under leaf litter, around the fruiting stalks of fungi and rise up again into my beautiful body a mile away? Haven’t I always absorbed the dead detritus of the earth and dead skin cells of my fellow humans as I touch them? Haven’t I always been a vital part of the food chain?
You think I’ve changed? You’d rather I didn’t touch you? Oh.
The 365 Tomorrows Free Podcast: Voices of Tomorrow
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The Past
365tomorrows launched August 1st, 2005 with the lofty goal of providing a new story every day for a year. We’ve been on the wire ever since. Our stories are a mix of those lovingly hand crafted by a talented pool of staff writers, and select stories received by submission.
The archives are deep, feel free to dive in.
Flash Fiction
"Flash fiction is fiction with its teeth bared and its claws extended, lithe and muscular with no extra fat. It pounces in the first paragraph, and if those claws aren’t embedded in the reader by the start of the second, the story began a paragraph too soon. There is no margin for error. Every word must be essential, and if it isn’t essential, it must be eliminated."
Kathy Kachelries
Founding Member
Submissions
We're open to submissions of original Science or Speculative Fiction of 600 words or less. We are only accepting work which you previously haven't sold or given away the rights to. That means your work must not have been published elsewhere, either in print or on the web. When your story is accepted, you're giving us first electronic publication rights and non-exclusive subsequent publication rights. You retain ownership over your story. We are not a paying market.
Voices of Tomorrow
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