Category: General Fiction

All Stories, General Fiction, Humour

The Man Who Sold the World by Martyn Miller

literallystories2014

The Almighty was taking a bath. It had been a long week with the creation of the universe and whatnot, and He felt he was due some respite. The water was perfect, the temperature set just so. The tub big enough that he could stretch out and rest his head on the rim while playing with the two ornate gold taps at the far end with his toes. And of course, the bubbles. The good lord could never have too many bubbles. A small rubber duck bobbed up and down, it’s bright yellow head briefly appearing above the waves of suds before vanishing once more. Closing his eyes, he soaked in the pleasure of a good bath and a hard weeks work, and slowly but surely, he drifted off…

Continue reading “The Man Who Sold the World by Martyn Miller” →

All Stories, General Fiction

Talk from the Back of Tim’s Barn by Tom Sheehan

literallystories2014

These were more than echoes, the soft sounds I was hearing from the rear of the barn sitting back from Route 182 in Franklin, Maine, half a dozen fat pigs to one side, corn as deep as Iowa on the other side, and the terrain across the road flush with blueberry bushes until a slow rise tipped the landscape in its favor… and in mine. In my son Tim’s favor, too. He lives by this barn. Perhaps I had lived waiting for its sassy voices.

Continue reading “Talk from the Back of Tim’s Barn by Tom Sheehan” →

All Stories, General Fiction

Sheltered by Jamie Sheffield

literallystories2014

“… bled all over the counter, staining my hands and the floor before I could get it cleaned up,” finished the lanky, slightly dirty, anemic-looking kid ringing me out, unaware, or perhaps undaunted, by the fact that I hadn’t been listening to him.

Continue reading “Sheltered by Jamie Sheffield” →

All Stories, General Fiction

The Grass Jesus Walked On by Elizabeth Bruce

literallystories2014

“One dollar,” young Earl C. Calder said and looked at the farmer before him transfixed on the small the blue vial Earl held in his hand.

Earl didn’t blink in the mid-day sun, all 110 pounds of himself holding steady next to Ida. The vial of elixir they had emptied the night before still floated through him, but he didn’t flinch, not Madam Wilma T.’s son, born in a brothel and groomed for greatness.

Continue reading “The Grass Jesus Walked On by Elizabeth Bruce” →

All Stories, General Fiction

White Face by Shona Woods

literallystories2014

‘I need a lift you see.’

My voice strains to be heard outside Mike’s house. There’s a hot stink of ale chasing him out the door, a cigarette resting along his ear, and a slapped cheek look about his face. He looks down from his considerable height, bolstered by the chunky doorstep. He is a statue on his plinth and I’m a beggar with a crutch.

Continue reading “White Face by Shona Woods” →

All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Siswana by Ntombi K

literallystories2014

It was a Monday morning. A village hen clucked at the assembly, looking for its youngling. The school principal, Mister Rakobo, went off with the hen, leaving the assembly divided into several assemblies. The Mocking Birds choral conductor raised a hand, calming the sopranos and tenors that were going this way and that. “Whose mother is that?” inquired some. “Someone must have stolen money or something,” speculated some. “A family death? A bullying case?” Some concluded that this was not the case.

Continue reading “Siswana by Ntombi K” →

All Stories, General Fiction

Maximum by Andy Carroll

literallystories2014

– I’d get yer ginger man from Billions on the tv on a boat, take him out there to Mutton Island and let him do some inside-trading on me.

The other two shrieked with laughter.  It was the three cleaners’ second smoke break since lunch.

Continue reading “Maximum by Andy Carroll” →