The Well
by J.S. O’Keefe / July 29th, 2025
Sara’s cleaning her M-16 and drinking water from the well. When she looks up she sees a multitude of nomads, exhausted and covered with dust. Apparently they just crossed the desert.
“May we drink your water?” their spokesman asks. “We’re parched.”
“It’s a public well, not mine,” says Sarah. Then she stares down the old man. “No, you may not drink from it.”
The nomads cry out as one. “What’s wrong?! Why don’t you let us quench our thirst?”
“Simple as, me being fully hydrated feels even better now. Also, if you drink your fill, we’d be no longer any different from each other at all.”
J.S. O’Keefe’s short stories, essays and poems have been published in Everyday Fiction, WENSUM, Roi Faineant, 101 Words, Spillwords, AntipodeanSF, 50WS, Friday Flash Fiction, etc.
Read other articles by J.S., or
visit J.S.'s website.
This article was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2025 at 8:00am and is filed under Fiction.