Fishing for Atonement
This is one of two award-winning short stories from the 2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards – Anthology of Winners. Fishing for Atonement is a chapter from a longer work of fiction that is still under construction – but stands on its own as a short story. Scroll down the home page to find Sandpiper Feet, the second story published in this anthology. The competition and book are supported by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international awards program for indie authors and independent publishers. For those of you who prefer holding a book in your hands, you can find it at Headline Books (scroll down to “Next Generation”) or at Amazon here.Like the day before, and the day before that, the hitchhiker started this day beneath a cottonwood grove draped in hanging robes of Spanish moss. This day was different however, because a rare breeze stirred the Mississippi air and brought a checkerboard smile to his face. Like the people in his life, most of his teeth had abandoned him years before. Friends and bicuspids were nothing but memories now. He closed his eyes and listened to the mesmerizing symphony of the cicada in the trees overhead. Their song rippled through the branches, gracefully rising and falling with the wind. The sound became the wind and its melody moved the silver moss into a soprano sonata that captivated the hitchhiker until the breeze descended once again into the trembling vibrato of the insect’s call.
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This story was selected for publication in the 2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards Anthology of Winners. The inspiration for Sandpiper Feet came when someone close to me made a brave and difficult decision – the decision to come out. The story was a finalist in the LGBTQ+ genre, but won the award in the Wild Card category. I don’t know which means more to me. The competition and book are supported by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international awards program for indie authors and independent publishers. If you prefer holding a book in your hands, you can find one at Headline Books or Amazon.The warm light of dusk shone through the dragonfly’s filigreed wings, illuminating each tiny pane and casting rainbow shadows that Angel captured in her tiny palm. She followed the creature’s movement as it careened off invisible breezes in search of unseen midges. Its wings twitched robotically, sending it forward, backward, and sideways in neck-wrenching maneuvers above the boat’s deck. You are so strange and so beautiful, thought Angel. How can you be so lovely to some and so frightening to others? Angel’s papa sat behind her with his weathered riding boots perched on the port side railing. He lit his pipe and released a stream of white smoke that chased the no-see-ums away. The dragonfly paused midair in confusion and then pivoted leeward in pursuit of prey downwind.
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