"Necessity" by Lori Twining — Our December 2017 Gold Medal Winner
Lori Twining is our first place winner from the contest posted in our December,2017 issue!
Meet Lori
Lori Twining writes both fiction and nonfiction, with her stories winning awards in literary competition and appearing in several anthologies. She’s an active member of many writing groups: International Thriller Writers, Crime Writers of Canada, Romance Writers of America, Toronto Romance Writers, Writers’ Community of Simcoe County and Ascribe Writers. She’s a lover of books, sports and bird watching, and a hater of slithering reptiles and beady-eyed rodents. www.lvtwriter.com; Twitter @Lori_Twining.
Necessity
an excerpt of the winning story by Lori Twining
Tonight, I had no other choice but to follow him through the dark streets of Georgetown. I wasn’t the only one who needed to know where he was going. My Mamma quizzed me between constant episodes of coughing, wheezing and vomiting.
Papà dropped his old secondhand bicycle with the rusted chrome fenders beside the trunk of the giant oak tree. He crawled under the barbwire fence with the faded no trespassing sign and disappeared through the dark opening in the crumbling wall. I recognized this place as where Papà used to work, but the Barber Paper Mill didn’t look the same; it was spooky, vandalized beyond repair and maybe even haunted. I did not want to go in there.
Voices echoed. Thin dark shadows crept up the walls dancing in the flickering amber glow. I crept one step at a time through the soot and ash down the dark, dusty hallway full of spider webs and the sounds of small rodents, keeping my back pressed against the cold outside wall until I could see into the vast open room. It was filled with people. Lots of people. Their fists pumped above their heads to the same rhythm as their chants…
To catch the rest of the story, be sure to purchase your copy of the March 2018 issue!
46 pages, cover art by Nicole Moss
FEATURING: Sharon Barr, Simon Broder, Richelle Forsey, Beverley Hopwood, Tony Kicinski, Alan MacLeod, Nicole Moss, Gail M. Murray, Olivia Sapp, Tsara Shelton, Susan Siddeley, Lori Twining
