Category: General Fiction

All Stories, General Fiction

The River by Diane M Dickson

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The clamour of the hand bell echoed through corridors and hallways, it was followed in an instant by the scrape and thud of thirty pairs of assorted boots and shoes on the bare floorboards of the classroom.

Miss Robinson stood and removed her specs.  They fell to the end of their chain and swung gently over her ample bust.  “Thank you Class Four collect your things.  For homework today I want you to write an essay.”  None of the children actually groaned but Jed noticed one or two pairs of eyes rolling heavenwards.  For him though there was a flutter of excitement deep in his stomach, he loved essays.

“Your work is to be entitled “The River” and is to be at least five hundred words. Hand it in tomorrow.  Now bow your heads for the prayer.”  Thirty heads bowed in unison and the mutter of childish voices strove to find a way to whatever God looked down on this benighted part of Yorkshire. Continue reading “The River by Diane M Dickson” →

All Stories, General Fiction

Dover by Michael W Smith

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I was sat at a table in a service station café off the M20, on route to Dover, waiting for Angelika to return with the coffee. The seat beneath me was small, with a round foam cushion and flat metal back. Outside, through the window that stretched the length of the cafe, I could see our campervan parked in the rain. In the dim morning light it appeared grey. We’d been on the road since six, as the sun bled into the sky, and had made good time. We were twenty miles from Dover when the temperature gage hit the red and the warning light came on. Continue reading “Dover by Michael W Smith” →

All Stories, General Fiction

Friday by Jane Dougherty

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There are some lives that don’t begin in earnest until they are almost over. Time is almost used up before the moment is reached, the decision taken that will give life some meaning. Until that moment, only holiday snaps show that time has moved at all. Children grow up, then move away and there are no more holidays, no more snaps. Time passes unnoticed. Continue reading “Friday by Jane Dougherty” →

All Stories, General Fiction, Story of the Week

Post by Jenny Morton Potts

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Final credits. Show’s all but over. One last tune from Ed’s iPod and the crematorium doors widen. I’m going where the sun keeps shining, through the pouring rain. Randall lurches outside, wobbles in a thank-god patch of sunshine. Going where the weather suits my clothes. The family shuffle themselves into a line-up: the deceased’s mother reaching just the shoulder of the deceased’s wife. Ed’s brother next? Very tall and looks a little like him. Ed’s children, the daughter only up to her uncle’s waist. A face she loves interrupts the protocol and the little girl’s smile slashes the dark fabric of today. Ed’s son, adolescent and alone at the end, arms meshed over the outrage in his gut. Here now we see the stiff bar chart of the family, offering some kind of analysis. Continue reading “Post by Jenny Morton Potts” →