Anna is gone

- OH MY GOD!
All the girls looked up from the plates full of waffles and jam. The voice came from the door, previously closed, but now wide open. There stood a girl. And... it looked like... Anna. But no, that would just be impossible. Anna was gone. But this girl has great similarities to Anna, just that everything was different. Anna's hair used to we light brown and straight, a bit greasy hanging down on her shoulders, over the grey sweater with a hood and zipper she used to wear with blue jeans like verybody else.
This girls' hair wasn't greasy, it was blonde and huge, and she wasn't wearing anything like the clothes they normally wore at this school. Instead, she wore a too-big, red dress: a grown-up woman's dress, not really fitting a 14 year old. To that, she was wearing black boots, like a military, and green socks. And there was something over her left eye. A line. Looked like somebody drawn a white line across her eyebrow and forehead. Was it a scar?
She stood there in the door with her arms stretched out like she wanted to hug them all, and she repeated her message:
- OH. MY. GOD.
It was completely silent in the room. Nobody was eating, waffles fell down from the girls' hands, down on the table. Confusion. Insecurity. They started looking at each other, desperately, seeking consensus on how to react to this. Nobody wanted to the initiative. Who would dare to take the first step, pose the question?
Finally, it was Sarah, the most confident of them all, who did it. Carefully, like she was stepping on a mine-field.
- A-nn-a...? Is that... you?
Everybody stared again at the girl in the door. Nobody dared to even blink their eyes, waiting for the reaction.
And then:
A secret smile developed into a real smile from one side of her face to the other. The close her eyes and started to giggle. And...
she nodded.
They all realised at once. Screaming in high pitch they ran up to her to hug her and kiss her and soon they all were standing around Anna, begging her:
- Tell us, tell us PLEASE!!
- OK, Anna said. I will tell you...

The meaning of the Lost and Found

Martha believed that everything happened for a reason. Whose plan it was, she could not tell; she usually thought “fate” or “destiny”, not daring to make a higher mention. Sometimes good things happened and sometimes it was bad; but at least she slept peacefully, knowing that someone, somewhere, had a plan for her for the next day, let alone for the rest of her life.
And most of the time she was right: someone did have a plan for her on the day after. She worked in an administration and that person was her boss.
Martha could have spent the rest of her days like this, waiting for her fate, yet a question bothered her. A small, meaningless question, which kept creeping inside her mind: was there any meaning to the things she lost? But she did not worry much, as she thought that destiny would provide her with an answer when it had planned to do so.
That was, until she lost her keys at the office. That day, she thought it was fate, and that the answer would soon be revealed. So she stayed at work to look for her keys. All evening, she searched and searched and searched, and when she eventually found her keys, she kept searching for signs of something extraordinary waiting to happen. Yet nothing happened. It was very disconcerting.
To an outsider, this could just seem like a loss of time. Yet to Martha, it was different. Perhaps, she thought, perhaps she had escaped from something terrible, something that would have happened if she did not stay in the office. She might have been part of an accident on the way home, for example. Or perhaps there wouldn’t have been an accident, but this was all part of a bigger plan, which she just couldn’t understand at that moment.
Yet perhaps it didn’t mean anything at all.
So that night she started to think about it before she went to sleep. The morning did not provide her with an answer, so on the night after, she couldn’t sleep at all. Then she couldn’t find any meaning to the fact that she was not sleeping, and it only made it worst.
Soon, she was so tired that she didn’t even look for signs anymore. Nothing was happening to her and she wondered whether she might have been wrong, or only partially wrong. Maybe some things happened for a reason, and other things didn’t mean anything. After all, the files of her destiny must have been extremely complicated to take care of, if the person who managed it had to take into account all the interconnections and interdependences of one event on the other. One week later, the question still bothered her and she couldn’t even lift her eyes from the pavement.
It was then that she noticed a sparkling thing lying next to her feet. Had it always been there? She didn’t know, but today she noticed it. Or rather, the fact that she had lost her keys then been unable to sleep embodied her with the power of finding the object. It was a set of keys which did not belong to her. Another person’s loss. Fate was sending her a message.
So she happily took the keys and went to the office, relieved to see that things did happen for a reason after all.
The fact that no one ever came to ask for the keys did not bother her.

One hundred words of solitude

He was sitting with his back leaning on the entrance door.
- Don't leave. – He said.
He hugged her knees as she tried to pass by him.
- I have to go to work. – She said.
- If you leave now you will never come back.
His tears fell on her shiny shoes. He saw the future in the shaking marbles.
- Let me go. – She said.
There is always a moment when you stand up. He stood up.
She kissed his wet face and closed the door behind her.

The person in me

- You treat me like this because you don't see the individual in me. You look at me, and all you see is breasts, thighs, pure flesh. If you could see me for who I am, if you could see the person in me, you would want to be my best friend. You are trapped by your animal instincts. You should try to focus on my inner values.

- Well, that's exactly what I'm doing. – The butcher said, and removed the chitterlings of the chicken with his knife.

Quickie

The elevator door closes. Trapped for ten floors. Me and him. Eyes towards the ground. My elbow at his arm. Coincidentally. Focus on this point of contact. Physical. Streaks of electricity along the paths of my nerves. Up my arm. Reaching my breasts. Reaching my flesh. Muscle tension, miniature shivers. Tiny hairs erected. Holding my breath. His arm shifts away. The connection has been broken. Looking up, pupils wide. Brown eyes staring back. Unfamiliar. "Have we met before?" No, not really.

I am scared

"I am scared," she said.

"Scared? Why should you be scared?"

"Well, shouldn't I be?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

The young woman took a deep breath. "That night. The body. This… This thing..."

"Which body? Which night?"

"You were there. I remember you were there."

"You are talking nonsense."

"It is the truth! I swear! He is after us, he will kill us all…"

"Nobody is trying to kill you."

"I am scared. I am so scared." And the woman said nothing more, but decided to close her eyes, so the murderer would not recognise her.

(100 words)

Love and trust

- Love is to not trust, she said, lying down, eyes closed, with him beside, looking at her.
- How?
- If you know you will be loved forever, what's the need to love someone back?
She looked sad. He found her incredibly beautiful.
- It will happen to us too.
- No! I love you always, he said, and kissed her. She opened her eyes and kissed him back. His eyes were closed now.
- Never trust someone who kisses with eyes opened, she said afterwards.
- I wasn't looking, he said surprised.
- But someday you will.