The Midnight Yard Sale
Okay, so I want to set the scene here, because when I tell this story at dinner parties nobody believes me.
First Time stories
First Time stories. First Time stories, from quick reads to long series. Reads run 19 to 24 minutes. Writers to know: North Craft, Roan Diary and Midnight Gallery. Readers usually start with “The Corkscrew Bid” and “Horsehair and Mustard”. Ranked by how many readers finish them. Some are free to read in full; the rest open with a free preview.
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First Time stories, ranked by readers
21 22 Tasting the Quiet
Adelaide had a system, and the system worked.
23 The Off-Season Arrangement
Georgia had turned twenty-eight in October, and the birthday had hit her harder than she expected.
24 The Dare List
Lea walks to the barn from her cabin at half past five, before the sun has done anything worth bragging about, and the high desert air has…
25 The Barge Date
So there I was, standing on the landing stage at Pier Head at seven o'clock on a Thursday evening, holding a bottle of wine my sister…
26 The First Blow
Okay, so here's how my Tuesday went.
27 When the Truth Slips Out
Some nights the dispatch desk felt less like a job and more like a chair I rented from the university.
28 The Last First
The gallery opening was one of those free wine and cheese things my coworker Pat dragged me to because he hated going alone.
29 The Bouquet Test
I turned sixty-four in March and my niece threw me a party at the diner, and somewhere between the cake and the toasts I realized I'd been…
30 The Wrong Sign
So here's how my Tuesday went.
31 The Last Juror
The elevator on the fifth floor had been broken since Tuesday, which meant everybody else took the stairs, which meant I got to be the…
32 The Tent Game
I'm Liv Hall, fifty-two years old, and I want it stated up front that I did not plan any of this.
33 The Night Shift Confession
I want to tell you about the night everything changed for me, and I'm sixty-two years old, so you know right away this isn't some college…
34 Lost and Found Under the Stars
The plane landed in Albuquerque a little after two in the afternoon, and I rented a car and drove north for three hours through country…
35 The First Time We Tried
Dean here.
36 Flipping the House, Igniting Us
I'm Andreas Conti, sixty-four years old, retired firefighter, thirty-five years married to the same woman.
37 The Plus-One
The envelope came on a Tuesday, which should have been my first warning.
38 What the Walls Hold
The evenings were the worst part of it, and I want to be plain about that from the start, because people assume retirement is all golf and…
39 The Wrong Fitting
Liza arrived at the motel with her jaw already tight, which was mostly Chrissie's doing.
40 The Night We Got It Right
The dinner had been a disaster, if you can call two people not talking a disaster.