The Morning Light in San Miguel
The sun came through the window of the casita in a long stripe across the bed.
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
21 22 Hop and Sway
The rope went with a crack you could feel in your teeth.
23 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.
24 The Second Thing
*This one's for anyone who's ever kept a thing they should have returned, just because it felt too good to give up.
25 The Rooftop We Never Left
Ten years.
26 Shared Silence at the Rare Bookshelf
Wilma had been looking forward to this evening for three weeks, and she was not going to let a little thing like turning sixty-four make…
27 Late Blooming Desire
Beverly had driven twenty miles of freeway and then past the address twice before she worked up the nerve to park.
28 The Unhurried Harvest of Her Heart
Drew again.
29 The Curator's Choice
I turned fifty-two on a Thursday, and that Friday night my boyfriend of three years asked me to pretend we had never met.
30 Cold Aisle Reunion
The snow started coming down sideways around four, and by the time I pulled into the lot at The Cold Aisle my wipers had given up on doing…
31 The Wig Maker's Weekend
The ad said house-sitter wanted, one weekend, references required.
32 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.
33 The Obedience List
The app said Sonny was fifty-two, a music professor, divorced, comfortable alone, and that his idea of a perfect first date was "an…
34 The Birthday Weather
The chime went off again.
35 Finally, the Floor
I was still at my desk at 8:47 on a Tuesday night, which by itself was not strange.
36 The Model's Contract
I signed up for the life drawing class on a Tuesday, mostly because my sister wouldn't shut up about me having no hobbies.
37 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.
38 First to Ask
Nobody warns you about the invisible guest spot at a wedding.
39 Backyard Grills
I'm standing at my grill on a Saturday in June, fifty-two years old, spatula in one hand, beer in the other, watching a moving truck eat…
40 The Fire Hall Bake-Off
I almost dropped the cupcake tray twice on the way from the parking lot, and both times it was because I was too busy squinting through…
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