The amaryllis appeared on the windowsill one Sunday morning in June. The bulb protruded from the soil in the cream-coloured ceramic pot, and sat next to the basil plant we had diligently kept alive for four whole weeks.
Tag: Short Fiction
Daily Bread by Fara Ling
The cobbled streets bloat, filled with petrol fumes, birds’ droppings, and old receipts discarded by office workers returning home. A clock chimes seven times.
The Hanging Mum by Melissa Prideaux
Mum opens the windows each morning to let the birds in and closes them at night to keep the darkness out.
Olivia’s Escape by Ed Kratz
Olivia squeezed the handle of her wheelchair so hard the veins stood out on her bony wrists.
A Secret Study of Jack Wilkens, Drunk by Tom Sheehan
Early evening light, what was left of it, spilled near Jack Wilkens in his one lone room in the big house, a house once flaunting and imposing in its stance, now cluttered like an old shed forgotten in a back lot, debris its main décor. Despite his reputation as the town drunk, a ne’er-do-well from the first day, an inveterate crank, there had been an instant and subtle attraction between me and the old codger, an attraction without early explanation.
Continue reading “A Secret Study of Jack Wilkens, Drunk by Tom Sheehan”
Literally Reruns – The Dumb by Doug Hawley
Leila tells us this rerun was just waiting to be chosen – this is what she said:
Continue reading “Literally Reruns – The Dumb by Doug Hawley”
Week 237 – Empty Shops, Eternal Drinking And Three Big Baws For Your Granny
Another week has rolled into the distance and here we are at Week 237.
My home town has now over 150 empty shops, that is very sad.
Off the top of my head, I can think of at least twenty pubs that aren’t here anymore and that is even sadder.
I miss all the pubs and one shop. ‘Drawrite’, was a stationers.
Continue reading “Week 237 – Empty Shops, Eternal Drinking And Three Big Baws For Your Granny”
Sisters from Another Mister by Jill Malleck
Cheryl picks me up at the corner of Queen and Duke on Saturdays at three. It just makes sense, she said not long after we met. I’m going right by there anyway. It was my bus stop to Freeport, only now I lean out of the Plexiglas shelter and give a little wave, so the bus doesn’t stop. Today he pulls in to drop someone off. My face is red. It’s stupid how ashamed I feel about that dismissive wave.
Continue reading “Sisters from Another Mister by Jill Malleck”
Flesh of An Unwanted Fish by Tom Sheehan
Armand Tollbar remembered everything Clara said, on and off the pillow, in the bedroom and out of it. These days that had become a tough assignment for him, for while the memories were rich and repetitive, he now knew, deep down in his body, without a paucity of doubt, that the river was getting polluted. For the two of them there had always been a minor division: she loved the house, he loved the river.
Continue reading “Flesh of An Unwanted Fish by Tom Sheehan “
The Birds by Adam Kluger
Clint Cherbouger was not an ornithologist. He liked birds for the most part. Mostly ducks. Pigeons were kind of gross and there were too many of them.
literally stories 