An Exercise In Memory For The Non-Homeless And Especially Those Laboring Women Whose Contractions Have Shrunk To Under Two Minutes Apart: Fiction — Cynthia Sample

In the spirit of Ror Wolf’s microstory just published yesterday on NC, we offer a homegrown micro author Cynthia Sample, a Texan who finds the strictures of story form an inspiration for jokes, whimsy, serendipity, found texts and mixed form. Call this an antidote to all the awkward 20-page monsters that so earnestly deploy characterization, backfill, social issue thematics and deep meaning. Don’t look for deep meaning here, at least not that kind of deep meaning. But the spirit of play is at work, irony is at work, the author possesses the flexibility of mind to see that a text can have more than one economy of use.

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This is the automated Emergency Blackboard of the Town of Highland Park. The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Dallas, Collin and Tarrant Counties which includes our area.

Take cover immediately.

Winds are expected to be 50-60 miles per hour.  During a Severe Thunderstorm, tornadoes can develop with very little warning.

Take cover immediately in the safest place within your home, either a central hallway or in an enclosed bathtub in the lower level of your home.   Cover yourself with mattresses or other padding if you are able.

Stay away from windows.

Do not drive.  Flash flooding is expected along all major highways and roads going into and out of the Town of Highland Park.  Be aware that heavy winds can damage power lines.

This warning will be in effect until 8:45 p.m.

Take cover immediately.

Press * to repeat this message.

Press 2 to be removed from the Early Warning Emergency Blackboard.

Press 3 to speak with the Town Tax Collection Department.

Press 4 to be connected to the waste management team.

Press 5 to speak to the Police Department.

Press 6 for directions to the Town Hall.

Press * to repeat this message.

Press * to repeat this message.

Press * to repeat this message.

—Cynthia Sample

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Cynthia Sample received a MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2005.  Her stories have appeared in Between the Lines, the Wichita Falls Literary & Arts Journal, Numéro Cinq and Love After 70.  She has work forthcoming in The Summerset Literary Review and Sleet. In 2007, she was one of four Emerging Writers to present her work at the WordSpace Literary Festival in Dallas, Texas, where she is a lifelong resident.