"Feeding Time" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

As a young wife and mother, Melody Danvers got in the habit of collecting the leftovers from dinner and depositing them outside in the yard.

In the morning, the scraps were all gone. Occasionally, Melody would hear some faint growling sounds at night, but it did not occur to her that leaving food outside in a rural area may be dangerous. 

Several years went by and the husband and the boys had long since departed. The solitary meals that Melody prepared for herself didn't produce the number of leftovers that her family dinners had and so she gradually stopped the old custom of putting scraps in the yard.

One night, after a lonely dinner of a burger and fries, Melody decided to go to bed early. A loud splintering noise awakened her from a sound sleep.

As Melody struggled to find her glasses, she could hear heavy steps coming up the staircase. Finding her glasses, she immediately dialed 911 on her cell phone, but the steps had already stopped at her bedroom door.

A blow of tremendous force knocked the door off its hinges and a massive beast filled the entry. Unable to look at the hideous creature coming towards her, Melody looked at the clock on a bedside table and realized it was about the time that she put dinner leftovers in the yard.

"Julie's Valentine" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

The last time that Julie Mason had received a valentine was in the sixth grade, so she was greatly surprised to find a red envelope with her name taped to her locker.

For most of the morning, Julie thought about who might give her a valentine card. Karl from the soccer team had smiled at her a couple of times and David from the chess club seemed to like her.

Finally, she just gave up and opened the envelope. The card had a proton and an electron dancing with the caption: "I particularly like you" and was signed "Anthony."

The only Anthony that Julie knew was in her physics class which would explain the card. During lunch period, she found Anthony sitting alone and reading a thick book. Julie sat down across from him and put the red envelope on the table.

Anthony put down the thick book. "Did you like the card?" he asked anxiously. Julie couldn't help but smile. Anthony was cute in a mad scientist kind of way. "Yes, but why me?" she asked gently.

"Well, you like to read like I do, you're nice to everybody-including the jerks, and I think you're really pretty." Anthony's face turned a deep red at the last part of his answer.

Julie wasn't quite sure how to move forward in a situation like this but finally decided that having lunch with Anthony would be a good place to start.