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101 Word Short Stories

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The Slow Leak

May 25, 2024 4 Comments

By C.W. Bryan

The leak started a few hours after we fell asleep. Martha never hears anything above her incessant snoring, but it woke me up. It was so persistent. Drip. Drip. Drip. It hit the hotel carpet with an imperative hollowness.

I swung out of bed and grabbed the coffee pot off the counter. I opened the lid and slid it beneath the leak. The water hit the glass with an echoing hollowness.

Martha took a nasty inhale. It struck me that no vacation could save us—no couples massage, no sunset cruise. The water dripped. My chest ached with a resounding hollowness.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marie says

    May 29, 2024 at 1:54 pm

    Well done!

    Reply
  2. Bonnie says

    May 29, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    Nice use of a metaphor to show a leaking marriage.

    Reply
  3. dan says

    May 30, 2024 at 8:26 pm

    agree with Bonnie. That’s what I wanted to say

    Reply
  4. Joana Figueiredo says

    June 13, 2024 at 8:45 am

    When I lived in my uni apartment a pipe burst on the floor above us and it inevitably forced me to sleep with three buckets around my room to collect all the water.

    The feelings of frustration, powerless and defeat are brilliant applied to the realization that marriage is beyond salvation.

    Reply

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