The Rule Book
The fryer alarm went off for the fourth time that night and I swear I felt it in my teeth.
Strangers mature stories
Stories in Mature tagged strangers, ranked by how many readers finish them. Reads run 20 to 26 minutes. Writers to know: River Quota, The Ginger Avenue and Observer of Starling. Readers usually start with “The Rule Book” and “Letters from the Crossing”. Some are free to read in full; the rest open with a free preview.
Strangers mature stories, ranked by readers
01 02 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…
03 Last Call at the Rodeo
Heath backed the stock trailer through the chute gate at a quarter past ten and killed the engine for the last time that season.
04 The Altar of Her Hands
*This one was written in the quiet hour after midnight, thinking about how gentleness is not the opposite of heat.
05 The Goat and the Grown-Up
*This story was born from a daydream about a loan officer meeting his match in a woman who's lived a little.
06 First to Ask
Nobody warns you about the invisible guest spot at a wedding.
07 Speed Dating the Wrong Sign
I moved to Middleton Vale in September, six months after the breakup, and for the first three weeks my social life consisted of the night…
08 The Call at Langford
*This story is a slow burn about a man who's done with surprises and a woman who's full of them.
09 The Oil Lamp Confession
Hilary heard the press before she saw it, the way she always did, the big Heidelberg humming through the floor of the press room like a…
10 The Night We Found Our Song
I'm fifty-two years old and I went to a club alone on a Tuesday.
11 Whiskey in the Rig
The cargo terminal at the regional airport was the kind of place nobody built on purpose, a big steel barn with a loading dock on one end…
12 Climbing Coach
I turned 28 on a Monday, and I spent most of that morning telling teenagers where to put their feet.