The Talent Show Confession
I work at the Heritage Museum in town.
Mature stories
Mature stories. Mature stories, from quick reads to long series. Reads run 22 to 26 minutes. Writers to know: Vermilion Fiction, Drift Diary and Observer of Starling. Readers usually start with “The Talent Show Confession” and “The Quiet End”. 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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Mature stories, ranked by readers
01 02 The Quiet End
Three days on the road and I had her mouth on my mind the whole way, which is a dangerous thing when you're running a forty-foot trailer…
03 The Rule Book
The fryer alarm went off for the fourth time that night and I swear I felt it in my teeth.
04 Stern Warning
The email came on a Tuesday.
05 Slow Hands, Quiet Trust
*This story came from wondering what it looks like when two people who've known each other for years find something new in the middle of…
06 Last Call at the Rusty Anchor
My name is Claude, I'm sixty-four years old, and I've been running the pharmacy on Harbor Street for eleven years now.
07 Late Return
My name is Sammie and I'm thirty-eight years old, and I have worked the front desk at the Maplewood Curling Club for eleven years.
08 The Sour Hour
I turned sixty-two last March and I celebrated it the way I have celebrated most things lately, that is to say I did not celebrate it.
09 Code Red
It was two in the morning and I was thirty-eight hundred lines into Rudy's garbage code.
10 One Night Deal
I'd been smiling for nine hours straight and my face felt like it was gonna crack.
11 Lighthouse After Hours
I landed in Keflavik on a Tuesday in November, fifty-five years old and wearing the same insulated jacket I wear for feeding cattle back…
12 The Welder and the Waitress
The grinder screamed and threw sparks across the tarp I'd nailed over the carpet, and I was so deep in the work that the knock at my door…
13 Ramp Song
I woke up with a strange weight across my ribs and for a second I couldn't remember what year it was.
14 The Foley Artist's Frequency
The bus let me off on a stretch of road that had no business being a bus stop, just a post with a faded sign and a gravel shoulder already…
15 Backstroke at Midnight
The greenhouse smelled like wet soil and orchids.
16 The Sound of Her Laugh
Bri sat on the fire escape with her feet through the railing and a lukewarm beer sweating in her hand, and the whole city breathed around…
17 The Blue Hour Sessions
The job came in on a Tuesday, which I remember because Tuesdays are when I sit by the phone as a woman waiting on a jury verdict.
18 The Server Error
I'm Willa.
19 Letters from the Crossing
The ferry terminal at Harrows Neck smelled like diesel and old coffee, and Sam Delilah had been sitting in the same molded plastic chair…
20 Learning to Be Seen
I've been carrying mail in Wexley for nine years now.
Mature, by tag
Dry and wry matureCoworkers matureDark and intense matureTender and slow matureA couple who have been dating a while, not married matureStrangers matureFunny and chatty maturePlayful and teasing matureNeighbors matureWarm and nostalgic matureLeather matureLatex matureWriters known for it
Vermilion Fiction, Drift Diary, Observer of Starling, Moss Harbor