-1-
I wake up every morning, face on desk, at the wee Sinatra hour of three. I’m surrounded by empty jugs and mounded ashtrays that look like Beaver dams. One thing I have going for me is I do not suffer from hangovers as badly as the Boss, her boozy hand heebie-jeebies (man oh man how those things do the St. Vitus boogaloo) will sometimes schedule me for 3:02, but mostly I come to on the hour.
Continue reading “The Hydra of Lambistan by Leila Allison”
Powder flowed from his cupped hands into the pouch. Samson had a satisfied mind after finding so many wild orchids in The Shallow Field. Some even grew from the crack in Split Rock – and the string of many sunny afternoons that followed made for great drying. It had all been a delightful surprise.
Continue reading “The Duster by Joe Ducato”
-1-
The Lernaean Hydra of Greek mythology has no set number of heads. Whatever the word in ancient Greek meaning “a buttload” applies to the noggin total of the belligerent Sea Monster, whose dispatch was the Second Labor of Hercules. But the previously Romanized version of the Hydra that recently arrived in Saragun Springs has just four heads–Vicki Beckious, Nikki Nolteious, The Situationious and Zippy-the-Pinheadious–but considering that they tend to talk at the same time, four is enough.
Continue reading “The Oz Solution by Leila Allison”
The big man filled the doorway of The Smack Inn, blocking out the insistent daylight. ‘Samuel Root?’ he boomed into the gloom.
A wiry little figure leapt up from a table in the depths of the room and scurried forward, hand outstretched. ‘Ned Polley?’ The other grunted. ‘Welcome. How was the journey?’
‘Long. Hard on the arse.’
‘Ale will see to that.’ Root waved and slopping tankards appeared. ‘Parents well?’
‘Mother same as ever. Father won’t see fifty again but good for a few years yet.’
‘Sorry about your uncle.’
‘Took me an age to read your letter.’
Continue reading “Blow, Bonny Breeze by Stephen Silvester”
“I reckon that lass Lyra or Lula or something was well into me, I got her number, I might get lucky later this week if I can see her again”, Kyle smiled, slapping his closest friend on the shoulder.
“Yeah and pigs might fly! Catch you Monday Kyle”.
Continue reading “Spice of Life and Death by M Bridger”
There is nothing more dangerous than a woman who dances.
Pablo Agüero and Katell Guillou, Akelarre (screenplay)
On the night of her sixteenth birthday, Garazi was awakened from deep sleep by an apparition, an ill-defined smoky shade with wavering contours that appeared at the foot of her bed. The intruder spoke in a flat voice that lacked warmth or inflection: “Get up, Garazi, for you are no longer a child, and come to celebrate your passage into womanhood!”
Continue reading “The Akelarre by Matias Travieso-Diaz”
The same place: Hampstead Heath. A misty London morning, the rising sun at times peeking through the pea-souper; joggers, dog walkers, city slickers taking a short cut, coffees in hand, trailed by confused people with no inclination to be doing anything, but stumbling around like zombies searching for a familiar face. Me: Canon in hand, covert, waiting for that magic pic to arrive – I’m poised.
Continue reading “The Forever Bench by SJ Butler “
He wasn’t a special man. He was just a guy with an above average trashcan. It might merit an even higher title than “above average.” Consider it magical. Yes, magical.
Continue reading “Gary’s Magic Trashcan by Peter Biles”
September 8th
The idea came to Louis Lovelace after a phone call informing him of the end of the world.
He groped for an excuse to end the call, but his mind was foggy from the smoldering joint in the ashtray. He’d been burning through the severance from his last job for almost five months now, and the truth was he had nothing better to do than listen.
“Louis, it’s Sheldon. We went to college together, remember?” the hopeful voice on the other end of the line said.
“I know this seems strange, but it’s urgent.”
Louis remembered Sheldon as a devoutly religious student who shared his notes whenever Louis was too hungover to take his own. They had hardly been friends, and in the fifteen years since graduation, Louis hadn’t thought about him once.
“Sorry?” The young man looks up from his reading.
“That a mystery?” the visitor says again. Odd for a July night, the tweed overcoat. It’s fraying at the cuffs, and stains, smudges on the one shoulder, soot all down that side, the extra long scarf rounding the throat then across his chest, wrapped like a royal sash, and beneath it a t-shirt, yellowed at the belly.
Continue reading “Mr. Terrence by Rick Moss”
