Short Reads

A driving instructor with a promise to keep. A crossing guard with a past the whole town knows. A penny-pinching old tenant who buys the building. Ten short stories, ten twists you won't see coming.

• Left Turns: A 64-year-old widow finally learns to drive, and her patient instructor seems to know far too much about her.

• Room 8: A Wyoming motel owner is sure the cold, armed stranger in room 8 is a wanted killer, while her friendly long-stay guest helps around the place.

• Out of Office: A busy executive hires a digital copy of herself to sit in her meetings, until small things about her own life stop adding up.

• The Tall Nurse: A night aide at an old nursing home is told a ghostly nurse appears before every death, and residents are dying faster than ever.

• The Giant's Boots: A village pays tribute every spring to a giant who tramples its fields, until the cobbler measures the footprints.

• The Cone: At the 1904 World's Fair, an ice cream seller runs out of dishes, and the family story of what happened next isn't quite true.

• The Mark: Two con artists at a luxury Key West hotel each think they've found the perfect rich target: each other.

• Dad's Briefcase: A teenager notices her father's car barely moves all week and his suit smells of bleach, and she follows him to find out why.

• Apartment 2B: A greedy landlord tries to drive out his tenants, especially the thrifty 84-year-old widow in 2B who has lived there since 1961.

• Crossing Guard: Parents petition to remove a school's new crossing guard after learning he spent 22 years in prison for a shooting.

Each story takes about five minutes to read. Book 9 of the Short Reads with Twists and Turns series. All stories are fiction.