All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

The Literal Gourmand — A Fable by Daun Daemon

She hated her job. All day she read and reworked words that didn’t satisfy, words dry, tasteless, and underripe — words like rectifier and microprocessor and power semiconductor. Their heaviness left paste in her mouth.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Brisling’s Code by Tom Sheehan

“Brisling!” yelled his boss Marquis, “if you don’t get out of the way, I’ll kick your ass for good.” And Marquis, darker but plump himself, wearing an atrocious suit with orange lines in it, smiled that puffy-cheeked grin he’d always use, like it was punctuation itself. I’m the boss and you’re the slob, it said. It was nothing less than a tongue speaking right at Brisling’s ear. Even commas and periods were in place, the exclamation points by the fingers. If there were question marks, he’d know them. He bet he could quote him verbatim, all the ways the boss man moved. All of it was catalogued, scored, filed away in his mind.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Stranger by Timothy Yam

She reached the sea.

It was not what Sukarti had expected. The poster at the bus stop made it look like paradise – azure blue water lapping onto sparkling white sand, framed by swaying palm trees – an image so real she could step right into it. The reality facing her was less seductive. The sand was rough and gathered under her feet in damp clumps. The water was a sickly, anaemic shade of green, and while it was indeed lapping onto shore, each wave bore a load of grimy debris – crushed plastic bottles, hollowed-out coconuts, a broken sun-bleached frisbee.

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All Stories, General Fiction

 Trash Music by William Cordeiro

 

My dog Scrapple was digging up my yard one day. I hightailed to scold him. Come to find out, Scrapple had dugged up this old thing, looks like a paper, a document of some sort. I don’t know what it means. Don’t right know if it means anything, actually. Letters a buncha hooks and ciphers squiggly as a tub of nightcrawlers.

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All Stories, General Fiction

A Small Succulent and an Octopus Pot by Anna Lewis.

“We launched the plant conservation study in an abandoned natural reservoir. Fields of sagebrush set against three icy active volcanos. And there I was, naked on the side of the dirt road. Covered in ticks. A poison oak rash burned up my waist. I had four wasp stings.”

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All Stories, General Fiction

Control by Dorian J. Sinnott

The knots in Alexander’s tie were becoming tighter with every twist and loop he made. His fingers moved in rhythm with his jaw, teeth grinding to the furling and unfurling of the silk in his hands. Again and again he coiled the fabric, feeling as it constricted against his skin. He had to admit, the first knots were sloppy, smeared in the sweat of the unstable fingers that made them. But, the further down they went, each became more and more precise. Practically a work of art.

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Week 180 – ‘Jockey At The Oche’, A Lost Opportunity And Belgium.

Here we are at Week 180.

You can’t say 180 without thinking darts. Actually whenever folk of a certain age in Britain say that, all they can hear in their head is the commentator, Sid Waddell’s voice. (Look him up on ‘You Tube’)

Jockey Wilson was a legend. As was Eric Bristow and Phil Taylor still is!

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All Stories, General Fiction

Man in a Pinch  by Tom Sheehan

He was thinking if he had a deep jacket pocket he would thrust his right hand into that pocket, hide it. But of course, he couldn’t. His right hand was laying back there on the slab of rock, near the stump of the tree that had fallen back on him, pinned his hand on the rock.

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