Dispatch Silence
Rory Pendleton pushed open the door of the Gongju dispatch center at dusk, snow dusting the shoulders of his jacket.
Tender and slow humor & satire stories
Stories in Humor & Satire tagged tender and slow, ranked by how many readers finish them. Reads run 12 to 18 minutes. Writers to know: The Steel Highway, The Ridge Corner and Delta Contour. Readers usually start with “Dispatch Silence” and “The Lantern Wreckers”. Some are free to read in full; the rest open with a free preview.
Tender and slow humor & satire stories, ranked by readers
01 02 The Lantern Wreckers
I rolled into Bagdad on a Thursday with about forty dollars to my name and a plan to leave with more.
03 Keg Ritual at Seda
Khalid Conway was thirty-six years old, and he had been laying hedge stakes on the helipad for two hours when Oliver Reimer came storming…
04 Firewatch and the Piano Run
Tomorrow I turn forty-four.
05 The Sundial Shift
Tina was twenty-seven and had never once been inside the locomotive wash shed behind the dock.
06 The Seamstress's Mistake
Dalton Carlisle was fifty-five years old and had been lost in strip malls for twenty years.
07 The Rigger's Canoe
My girlfriend left me six months ago.
08 The Reunion Carcass
The market square was gray when they pulled in.
09 The Night Baker's Rehearsal
I want to tell you I walked into that tea house with dignity.
10 The Deposition Drafter
Shelby was thirty-four years old and she had the malt spiel down to a science.
11 Thermometer at Dawn
Lizzie Marsh was forty-three years old, and she had baked competitively for exactly three years, which meant she had been doing it roughly…
12 Ballot Boxed In
The Grange Post Office smelled like old paper and wood smoke, the way it always did, and Jessi Greer pushed the door open with her hip…
13 The Grounds
Roberta had been on her feet since nine that morning, and by a quarter past five her knees had filed their usual protest.
14 Salsa Revenge
*This one came from watching bad dancers in a cramped apartment and thinking about how lessons can turn into something else when the walls…