Tag: short story

All Stories, General Fiction, Humour

A Miracle on Granville Street by dm gillis

literallystories2014

typewriter

It was said that the Grove Café was so cheap that the Health Department had to bring its own cockroaches. It occupied an abandoned Bank of BC storefront on Denman Street in the west end of Vancouver, a mixed neighbourhood of the snotty middle class and the grubby poor. The café is gone now. The lease ran out, the landlord raised the rent and the Grove ceased to exist. The storefront sits empty now, and though he’d never admit it, the greedy landlord laments the loss.

Continue reading “A Miracle on Granville Street by dm gillis” →

All Stories, General Fiction, Romance

Still Working by Tobias Haglund

Tobias Haglund

typewriter

December sweeps her dead hand around my throat. My capuche swooshes open and I come to life in the morning hour rush. A beggar scratches the furrows between the cobblestones outside the metro station. When I get close to him, the automatic doors open and the warm breath of the subway hits me. He looks up at me, then back down again to the cobblestones.

I walk out on to the escalator, a boy runs past me, then a girl, then another boy. The latter boy shoves the girl when he rushes by her, down the escalator. She yells, but keeps going. Yesterday the fungus to the right was green, but today it’s covered in white foam.

The subway train comes in and I get on. It’s full, so I stand. I can always tell which state the country is in by looking at the adverts. Education, insurances, job seminars and cheap groceries. I’m reminded of what the prime minister said; the lowest unemployment rate in Europe by 2020.

Promises aren’t worth much to the poor. That’s why the adverts look the way they do, and why the beggar scratches the furrows of the cobblestone.

Continue reading “Still Working by Tobias Haglund” →

All Stories, General Fiction, Story of the Week

Neverland by Jono Naito

literallystories2014

typewriter

 

I gave him what was left of my hand because he asked for it with such a kindness; he even called me miss. It was the kindness you forget about when you run out of family and end up in a home off the soggy edge of the Everglades. Rosecliff, they called it, to make it sound less like swamp muck. I didn’t know how well I could stand anymore until that man, the father of the head doctor, told me we were leaving for somewhere better. You don’t get feet to disintegrate like mine unless you traveled, and traveled I did, and travel I would. All that man had to say was please, you know, before I remembered how to walk again.

Continue reading “Neverland by Jono Naito” →

All Stories, General Fiction

This Face by Diane M Dickson

literallystories2014

typewriter

Today I know this face.  I stare into the mirror and I know this face.  It is me, not the me that it was when we bought my mirror all those years ago.  Down in the antique market, Martin and I trawling for treasures to make our home and we found it dusty and forlorn, how pleased we were.  No it doesn’t show me that person, but it is the me of now and of just yesterday.

Continue reading “This Face by Diane M Dickson” →

Background
Latest News

Literally Stories – Week 36

literallystories2014

typewriter

There is a well-known truism you can take a horse to water but a pencil must be lead. I have waited an aeon  to find a suitable juncture to slot this witticism into a profound piece of writing, but alas, had to stick it in here instead.

Whilst this observation might seem bizarre, regular readers will know instantly it is merely a shameless contrivance by which to segue seamlessly into the first of this week’s homages to the short story.

Continue reading “Literally Stories – Week 36” →

All Stories, Fantasy

How to Have Broken Her Heart by Nate Rush

literallystories2014

typewriter

tulations! You have successfully traveled backwards in time!

Do you have qualms about killing a rare and mystical beast? Do you fear the DMV and other institutions like it? If so, read no further; if not, read on. Throughout the course of this guide you will learn the secrets of time travel. To travel back in time it is necessary to collect your supplies, construct your machine, and then, finally, to make your jump. This is no easy process. Many men and women far smarter than you have failed while attempting to turn back the hands of the clock.

Continue reading “How to Have Broken Her Heart by Nate Rush” →

All Stories, General Fiction, Romance, Story of the Week

The Troubadour by Tobias Haglund

Tobias Haglund

DSC_0592

”Hello, sir.”

”Yea?”

”Uhm. I’m here to see Pam.”

“My daughter?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You the kid?”

“Uhm…”

“I mean the kid she’s been sneaking off with. The … No, let me think. The Williams boy, right?”

Continue reading “The Troubadour by Tobias Haglund” →

All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

Swan River Daisy by Tom Sheehan

literallystories2014

DSC_0592

Chester McNaughton Connaughton, aptly named for both sides of the family, landowner in the new world, squeezer of pennies and nickels at the very corpulence of coin, embarrassed at times by his own good fortune where his roots had once been controlled and ordained by potatoes and turnips or the lack thereof, gazed over the latest acquisition of a two-acre parcel abutting his prime abode and wondered how he could best utilize it. Mere coinage, he had early assessed, would apply the jimmy bar under Carlton Smithers and separate him from the land in their town of Saxon, not far from Boston. Carlton was old, alone, susceptible. It would be a piece of cake. It was, subsequently and as he had forecast, a swift steal, and papers and proper process moved the property under the shield of his name.

Continue reading “Swan River Daisy by Tom Sheehan” →

Background
Latest News

Literally Stories – Week 35

literallystories2014

typewriter

A week that began with a flight of fancy, or fantasy flight, depending on how you read it, ended in not dissimilar fashion.

Whilst LS newcomer Lawrence Buentello kept his MC’s feet on the ground he could not prevent her schoolgirl head being up in the clouds, in Wings.

James McEwan said of Friday’s story: “A subtle story, which leaves a quiet resonance in my mind, contemplating, yes, quietly contemplating.”

Continue reading “Literally Stories – Week 35” →

All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

Wings by Lawrence Buentello

literallystories2014

DSC_0592

Marie first noticed the butterfly outside her window while writing in her diary.

She’d just written, This room is like my own cocoon these days, though I wish it weren’t, when she happened to turn her head to see the butterfly perched on a bough of the oak tree just beyond the sill. She briefly returned her attention to the opened book before her, but then set her pen on the crease of the pages and stared from the window again.

Continue reading “Wings by Lawrence Buentello” →