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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
***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 …
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 …
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 …
“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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Jamie works in one of those offices down on Abbey Street. It’s a call centre or something: the European office of some American tech company. Anyway he’s been there over a year now. Most of his gang are in Australia, …
Richard Sadler stayed perfectly still as drops of sweat began to form on his forehead and trickle down his long nose and lean cheeks. It was already mid afternoon. Completely enveloped in a dense thicket, He was invisible from beyond …
Joyce sat on the wall looking over the road at the lake. Small quick waves lapped against the stony shore. “Nothing ever happens here”. Ray stopped sharpening the stick and stuck it experimentally into the ground. “Not …