August - EMPTY

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

The harassed office worker needed to empty her bladder. Badly. I.T. had emailed saying they’d call soon to fix her slug-like desktop. It had been half an hour. She should’ve gone as soon as the email came. Now, she'll miss their call for certain. The office was a bedlam of inefficiency – emails were down daily, answering machines were non-existent, phones rang relentlessly until someone answered, and I.T.’s solution to everything was rebooting. She thought to ask a colleague to take a message. Death metal blared across the desk divider to the right and Russian folk music to the left. Neither of her neighbours were in a charitable mood. Think dry thoughts. Ignore parched throat. Ignore tea turning tepid. Ignore...fuck it. It’s been an hour. Just go to the damn bathroom. Then reboot.

July - CHEESECAKE (Word limit: 100)

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

The smart-phone. Her sworn frienemy.  An innocuous-looking super-slim device that had become the remote control to her life; governing her actions, draining her of social etiquette faster than she could drain its battery. Short, sharp pings would distract her at family functions and get-togethers, causing her to forgo her manners in favour of checking the number of likes her cheesecake photo had received on Facebook, or the number of re-tweets her latest outraged outburst on the state of Sydney's traffic had acquired or the number of followers she’d gained on Instagram – the LED illuminating her face and bringing to light her not-so-secret addiction.

June - OBSTACLE (Word limit: 100)

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

The new age nannies.They gathered in the park in their dhotis, turbans and long silver beards. Neither the scorching summer heat nor the biting winter chill posed an obstacle to their get-togethers. These retired Punjabis  sat on the bench telling tales of their hometowns and counting the number of days before they could return to India, all the while keeping a mindful eye on their grandchildren who see-sawed and took turns on the swings nearby. The men were here on tourist visas, sponsored by their children who now had children of their own and preferred live-in babysitters to paying exorbitant day-care prices, and held no qualms about uprooting their parents.

May - CRUISE (Word limit: 100)

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

“There were no fruits and vegetables,” she said in hushed, horrified tones.                                                       

He was sceptical: “Thai cuisine is full of flavour; I thought they’d have an abundance of fresh foods.”

“My daughter loves strawberries and there was none – just strange things like starfruit,” she responded.

“You mean carambola?” he corrected.

“There was something foul called durian,” she said, shuddering.

“That’s a delicacy,” he muttered.

“And this prickly thing called rambutan hurt my mouth!”

“Perhaps next time, peel it first.” he sighed in exasperation.

“The best food we had was on the ship. I love these cruises. Would prefer to skip some of these island stopovers though.”

The travel agent bit his tongue, reminding himself: the customer is always right. 

April - PIMPLE (Word limit: 100)

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

Awkward Anna was avoided unanimously in the little office in the big smoke. Punctual herself, she pointed out to anyone who blamed traffic for their late arrival that they surely didn’t travel farther than she (two hours from her parents’ Blue Mountains’ residence), as she sipped her loose leaf liquorice tea. She corrected co-workers’ pronunciation and grammar. She rolled her eyes at the use of ‘youse’. She silenced lunchroom conversations; interrupting people mid-sentence: “It’s called a blind pimple, not an in-grown pimple…” So it came as no surprise that they all rejoiced when she resigned to pursue her online tea cosy business.

Happy INTERNATIONAL Women's Day

By Latika M

"So, you're a Fijian with a NZ passport?"

"No. Actually, I'm a Kiwi," she murmured softly - throat parched from caffeine induced anxiety.

"I went to Fiji once," he looked away into the distance, pupils dilating.

She followed his gaze out the window and saw what had attracted his attention; a leggy blonde in 6 inch stilettos, with a perky rump.

"They eat too much breadfruit in Fiji. Boiled and bland with a side of fish in coconut milk. I was sick from it by the end of our holiday."

Lowering his glasses he glared at her, as though she were responsible for his dining woes. She couldn't help but notice how his chin wobbled or how he clasped his pasty fingers, reminding her of cartoon villains.
She thought it unusual that a bald man could have such copious amounts of hair - tiny little sharp needle-like silvery spikes sprouting from his skull in a scruffy mess.

"I went to Fiji with my family for the first time a few years back, just before starting uni. My aunt  made us deep fried breadfruit chips and we ate a big bowl of it with spicy tinned mackerel curry. It was delicious."

Immediately she regretted her over-firm delivery. After attending several of these interviews, she knew to always remain calm, meek, non-threatening and without an iota of personality. It was crucial to stay inside the box, think grey thoughts and blend in with the dull space of any office she walked into.

Narrowing his eyes, he sighed and checked his watch, "So you are absolutely certain you are allowed to work in Australia?"

"Yes, I'm classified as an Australian permanent resident. I am a citizen of NZ - I was born there. Would you like to see my passport?"

"No, no," his turkey-like chin wobbled again, "We have a few more interviews to get through, my assistant will be in touch if you are successful."

Before she could respond, he stood up, towering above her. And so she reluctantly stood up too. He gestured towards the door. She nodded, smiled politely and walked out of his office with her head bowed. Her overzealous defence of breadfruits might have cost her the job.

March - BANANA (Word limit: 100)

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

At the peak of summer, the office air conditioner carked it every year, just as the workers were returning tanned and lethargic from their Christmas break. This sudden influx of life invading the small space, walking through the cramped corridors, sucking in too much oxygen and sharing holiday stories unsettled the old cooling system. This year, the boss had preemptively given everyone apple green desk fans with little yellow banana motifs. So when the air stopped circulating, everyone switched on their fans in unison, causing a power outage, blanketing the entire office in darkness with just the bananas glowing brightly.

February - PONDER (Word limit: 100)

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

She would seldom ponder the futility of the human endeavour. As someone who saw the glass as half full, she approached life with vigour, trying to achieve as much as possible every day – be it as mundane as cleaning the oven or as life-altering as a cake decorating course for her new venture at the local farmers' market. So when the flash flooding turned her flawlessly iced cupcakes into a mushy puddle at the inaugural of her market stall, she was left despondent and torpid. The torrential downpour had washed away her optimism together with the perfectly piped buttercream rosettes.

January - BIKINI (word limit: 100)

Positive Words Short Story Competition

By Latika M

She dribbled on herself a lot. It wasn't a medical condition, she was certain. She spilt water on her crisp corporate attire while clearing her throat in the middle of a meeting. She flinched as the morning coffee drips scalded her chin. An embarrassed giggle escaped along with a droplet of icy blue slushie that stained her pink bikini top on a sticky summer day. Always reaching for a tissue, glancing around awkwardly as her cheeks burned a bright red. Forever feeling foolish and frothing with fury at her inner klutz, wishing her clumsiness would drown in her own saliva.

Mini Words Competition

Check out Sandra James' Positive Words Magazine blog where she runs a monthly short story writing competition. Word limit is 100 and each month there is a new word that  needs to be mentioned in your story at least once. The entry fee is $1.40 worth of unused stamps that you'll need to post along with your story. I'll be posting my stories here each month. I've written the one for January, just haven't gotten around to posting it...always running late!

Autumn Leaves

By Latika M

Ideas sprout to life.

Imagination runs wild.

My head; an unkempt garden.

Out-of-control thoughts germinate and grow like weed,

Choking, crowding, invading every available space.

Like leaves, words fall through fingertips,

Permeating page upon page with the colours of autumn.

A collection of foliage; pressed, preserved, captured forever

Unless, of course, I hit delete.