Out in the rhododendron, an old wind lies coiled lengthways along thick roots. The acidic slopes they twist through drop steeply towards the curve of the fjord. Sounds of the Atlantic and its dwellers drift up on younger, more eager …
Category: Short Story
Short Story (after Rumi): The Dragon Charmer
( -- after hearing the Rumi story from Matin B. on the London Underground -- )
A poor snake charmer, feeling that he was passing his prime, went to the mountain to pray for a better life. “God, I have …
Short Story: Constables Three
Thump thump thump of stiff hull on salty mound. Gannet gull tern rising and falling in and out of sight. View pulled apart to its original full width, in the broad hiss and hum of ocean passage.
Three constables crouch …
Short Story: Birds of a Feather
Joe waited until he was home alone before opening the bag. He dropped it on the kitchen table over a touristy place mat and scattering of unopened envelopes. His sweaty fingers gripped the zipper and the canvas spilled apart into …
To Hanbury Gardens We Will Go
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
The car pulled up outside the entrance and three siblings stepped out into the hot sunshine. Sharp light …
Short Story: Follow Me
Suddenly Sam found himself sitting at the next table to Sam.
To be more clear, Sam McKenna suddenly realised that he was sitting at a table next to a table where Sam McKenna sat.
To be clearer still, here we …
Short Story: Swim Swim
701-9 Test 3028. 2017-12-15. 16:22.
Click. swing. Light up. Foodbody? Grabbody. Grabbody smell.
Grab grab. Grab grab go. Up up. Smell loud. Body loud. Away away. Over. Grab grab. Down. Ear loud. Down.
Splash splash. Grab go. Grabbody smell. Swim …
Short story: Crow Riders
Gusto was only back for the weekend. I met him on Friday afternoon and again in a pub on Saturday.
It was December and there was a cold snap, with snow on the hills and scattered along the edges of …
Short Story: The Promotion
The Promotion
Interview room 341 is very small and dark, like a segment cut from a corridor. Harry notices the odd ratio of wall to door to window as he automatically moves towards the one empty chair. An inspector sits …
Short Story: A Day in the Failures of John R. Clancy
A Day in the Failures of John R. Clancy
LISTEN:
John Rufus Clancy tried to become so still that he could feel time pass, but he failed. He could see the clock counting up, but he couldn’t feel its passing. …
Short Story: A Fairy Gust
***page title image: Ejiri in the Province of Suruga, by Katsushika Hokusai (1832)***
“A fairy gust,” said the mother to herself in the kitchen.
It had come flung from the Atlantic, down through the low mountains and into the narrow …
Short Story: The Suitcase
The Suitcase
“Frankie, you’re for the birds”
Frankie sighed and looked at his watch again.
Annie sat by the range on the well worn couch.
“Not now Mike; give it a rest.”
But they let Mike go on as they …
Short Story: NO TRESPASSING
When I lived out in the village near the mountains I would go hiking by the swift river, over the soft bogs, and up the rocky slopes, weather and work permitting.
I got to know the most popular routes and …
Very Short Story: The Mistake
The Mistake (a very short story)
Wasn’t like the daydreams at all. They chased me up Taylor’s street and left down St. Kilda’s Avenue and over the grassy wall into Finny Park where the trees were just beginning to leaf …
Very Short Story: Abiogenesis
Dr Malthus and Dr Richards were very excited about something. They leaned over each other to get a better look at the microscope.
The film crew, squashed along the other side of the capsule, paid them no attention. They had …
Short Story: Mrs Deacy and The Flood
“It’s the wrath of God!” cackled wiry old Mrs Deacy with a smack of her stiff walking stick on the linoleum. “Settle down please, Mrs Deacy,” said Frank McDonagh. “It’s the same spring tide as every year, just coincident with …
Story: Mitchell and the long way round
My hands shook. I couldn’t stop them. The magazine slipped from my fingers. I squatted and searched for it in the mud. Rain pinged off my helmet. Sporadic volleys of gunfire zinged through the greasy drops. We were supposed to …
Short Story: Patients
After washing my hands with warm water I squirt disinfectant gel on them from the plastic dispenser that hangs on the wall, and stand looking in the mirror while I rub them dry. Looking older? Surely, but it’s so hard …
Short Story: Dossers
When the branch of the beech tree broke Morris fell down in a heap next to the trunk. He lay there and stared at the sky. “Stupid branch!” he cursed upwards. The tree was unmoved, its leaves shivering in the …
Short Story: Signing On
Burgundy. Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot. White, red, rosa, bubbly. Brian bought 500 grams of dry fusilli pasta in Dunness Stores before going to the Dole Office to sign on. He should have gone earlier; it was overflowing when he got to …