July 2024 Short Story of the Month

Tammy slumped in the booth trying to make herself invisible. As she slid further down, her hands accidentally touched the underneath of the seat cushion. It was sticky.

“Gross,” she mumbled, instantly sitting up straighter. She looked at her hands. There was something grey and questionable on her fingertips. “I’m going to wash my hands,” she said.

Her parents didn’t even stop their arguing to see where she was going or to confirm what she’d just said.

The restroom at the Golden Dragon Café was cleanish, but Tammy tried not to touch anything if she could help it. It wasn’t that she was a germaphobe, exactly, but since whatever was going on with her parents, she was just more particular. She should probably mention it to her therapist.

She sighed as she washed her hands. Even thinking about going back to see her therapist bothered her. She liked Dr. Pearl, but her parents didn’t agree with her going. Her mom said everyone needed therapy. Her dad said it wasn’t like Tammy had “real problems.”

Back at the booth, the food still hadn’t arrived. Her parents weren’t speaking though, so that was an improvement. Tammy sat back down, but she didn’t slouch this time. She leaned forward, resting her head in her hands. Her parents were both busily scrolling through their phones, distracting themselves from “family dinner.”

Tammy didn’t understand why they both insisted on this façade of a happy family having a nice dinner out. For starters, she wouldn’t call this restaurant nice. The food was good, but the place was a little shabby. Her parents only liked it because it was the one food they agreed on.

Maybe next week Tammy could suggest they go out for Greek and let the ensuring argument lead to them not going at all. It was a pretty good plan. Tammy pulled out her own phone and added it to her to do list for next Tuesday.

Tuesday 430pm – suggest Greek for dinner

Tammy smiled to herself.

“How was your day?” her mother asked.

Tammy glanced up to see if her mother was actually speaking to her.

Her mom was still staring at her phone, scrolling away.

Tammy wondered how long she could sit there, not answering, before her mother would even realize she hadn’t answered.

The waitress arrived just then with their food.

“Moo sho pork with white rice,” the waitress said, sitting two plates in front of Tammy’s dad.

“Thanks,” he said, still not looking up from his phone.

“Spring rolls,” the waitress said, sitting a plate in front of her mother.

Tammy’s mother always ordered an appetizer for a meal. It drove her dad crazy. Tammy didn’t care and couldn’t figure out why it bothered her dad so much.

“Pepper chicken and fried rice,” said the waitress, sitting two plates down near Tammy.

Tammy nodded her thanks and cracked open a pair of disposable chop sticks. She didn’t wait for her parents. They were both still “busy” on their phones. Tammy never waited for them to eat. If she had, she would have been starving by the time even one of them realized the food was for eating, not just decorating the table.

Her food was gone before she knew it. Luckily, her appetite didn’t seem affected by her parents’ constant bickering.

As soon as her parents started eating, the waitress dropped the ticket with three fortune cookies on their table.

“Pay at the front,” she said. She refilled Tammy’s soda, but she didn’t come back after that.

Tammy was enjoying the quiet that had descended while her parents were eating. While they worked on their food, she picked up one of the fortune cookies. They were her favorite thing about this restaurant. They weren’t made in a factory. The owner and his family made them.

The tiny papers that fell out of them were beautiful pieces of origami with a miniscule note scrawled on them.

Tammy broke her cookie in two, being careful to catch all the crumbs in her hands. She popped the crumbs in her mouth and sat the two larger pieces of cookie on her plate to eat after she read her fortune.

She unfolded the paper. Her fortune said, “The world is yours to command.”

That was different. The fortunes were usually vaguer. Tammy read her’s out loud, “The world is yours to command.”

Her mom rolled her eyes and handed her dad the check. She didn’t wait for her husband to finish.

“Tammy, would you like to ride home with me or your dad?” her mother asked.

Tammy looked at both of them. Her dad still had half a plate of food left. “I guess I’ll wait with Dad.”

“Fine. See you both at home,” her mother said. She gathered her phone and purse and left without saying another word to her husband.

“Well, it’s just us,” said her dad, stating the obvious. Whenever her mother left the two of them alone, he had a bad habit of stating what they doing out loud. It was like he needed a narration of their interactions, or he didn’t know how to act around her.

“Dad, it’s okay to just not say anything,” said Tammy. She didn’t expect her dad to listen to her, but he didn’t say a single word the rest of the time they were in the restaurant or on the car ride home.

When they walked into the house, her mother was waiting for them. She started yelling at her husband about something, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he shrugged, said nothing, and went to watch t.v.

Tammy shook her head. That was out of character. Usually, her mom and dad both didn’t miss a chance to argue with each other. Tammy could hear her mother trying to argue but her dad never responded.

As Tammy opened her bedroom door, she whispered to herself, “If only they could get along.”

The yelling stopped. Tammy didn’t go downstairs to see why, but the sudden silence in the house made her pause momentarily.

The rest of the evening, the house was quieter than normal. It was a relief. Tammy spent the night in her room, only leaving for a few moments to grab a drink.

The next morning, it was eerily quiet in the house. Tammy was almost afraid to get out of bed. She sighed deeply. “Just five more minutes of peace,” she whispered to her room.

Despite her reluctance, she flung the covers off and went downstairs.

As she stepped into the kitchen, she looked at her parents. They weren’t moving. Her mother was holding a cup of coffee in her hand, posed to stir it, but not actually doing it. Her dad was sitting at the kitchen table, holding up his phone, but not even blinking or scrolling.

She stepped fully into the room and towards her mom.

“Mom?” she asked. She walked around her mother in a circle, and when she passed by her face, she waved her hand in her mother’s face. Her mother also wasn’t blinking. In fact, now that Tammy looked at her mother more closely, she could tell her parents weren’t breathing either.

“What is going on?” she asked, but her mother still didn’t answer or move. She tapped her mom on the arm, but still nothing happened.

Tammy moved to her dad next. He was the same as her mom. He wasn’t moving or breathing.

“What is going on here?” Tammy yelled.

She pushed her dad, but there wasn’t any response. She panicked and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She tried to activate it, but no matter how many times she pushed or tapped it, it didn’t respond.

She didn’t know what to do, but she needed help. Despite being in her pajamas, she made her way out the front of the house and was bolting across their lawn to her neighbors’ house when she noticed everyone and everything outside were also frozen in place.

Every car on the street was stopped. Across the street, Mrs. Lint was still with her door halfway shut. She had her dog Toby on a leash. Toby was also motionless.

Tammy stopped too. She didn’t know what to do. She went back into the house and sat down on the living room couch. She glanced up at the old grandfather clock. It was still too. None of the hands were moving.

“What is going on?” she asked out loud even though she knew no one could hear her.

She felt like screaming, crying, and curling up into a ball all at the same time.

“This is too weird. I wish things were normal again.”

And just like that, the clock started again. She could hear the cars driving down the street. She heard the clink, clink of her mom stirring her coffee.

She went into the kitchen again.

“You okay?” her mother asked.

Tammy nodded. “Just tired.”