The little man at the side of the road where the hearses do their U-turns is pointing at passing pedestrians and shouting ‘You’ll never get out! And you’ll never get out! But you’ll get out! But you’ll never get out!’ I fall into the ‘Never get out’ category. My coffee has gone cold and IContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Sludge’”
Author Archives: MW Bewick
100-Word Fiction: ‘Lanterns’
You remember when it was New Year’s Eve and we all stood in the park and it started to snow and all across the grass people were lighting those paper lanterns that we watched float off into the deep clear night and the brand-new year? And we wondered where they’d travel, these flickering starry specksContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Lanterns’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Bear’
The bear had arrived in the story again, big and brown and powerful. It followed us to the dilapidated house that was meant to be a home and tore apart some rabbits in the pasture out front where it was always spring. It pawed open the front door and licked at the living room asContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Bear’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Savoy Shuffle’
That ol’ London thing, waiting at a crossing in rush hour between showers and a book falls out of the sky, lands at the side of the road, hardback, heavy, with a thud, the biography of a sports personality with late-career broadsides to discharge, and you look up, and there are only clouds. A dayContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Savoy Shuffle’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Into the Grey’
The grey months are back. The river is a monochrome line through a commuter town. Shrieking magpies hop across the railway sleepers; five for silver. Wheel rims slash the gutter puddles of a wet street. City towers wear loose shrouds and leak osmotically into the concrete sky. Coats are zipped, umbrellas black dots streaming pastContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Into the Grey’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Drop-stones”
Out he went again, tearing down the road with his mother shouting for him to stop and stay. He ran to the wooden bridge over the stream, gathering pebbles and gravel along the way and filling his pockets with them. Leaning over the wooden handrail, he gazed into the water, which was made murky byContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Drop-stones””
100-Word Fiction: ‘Dialogue Q [Contemporary]’
Q: I do feel unhappy, yes, although it shouldn’t be unexpected. Q: Maybe the darker mornings. And television, maybe. Q: Hell, and it’s not even over yet, there’s next week. Tis the season. Q: Well they’re setting us back years. The general polemic across all of them just appals me. I don’t know what’s toContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Dialogue Q [Contemporary]’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Song of the Mountain’
When he came down from his mountain and ended his isolation he sang us a song so deep that the hill itself shuddered. In the high altitude he had escaped his history and greeted us with a smile that was sweet with innocence. But we had not forgotten the pasts we shared and, while hisContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Song of the Mountain’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘How He’s Talked Lately’
I try to shut the thoughts away but the words he says prise open my every defence. I can’t not hear it. He talks about his life, his friends, the plans we’ve made, the things we’ve achieved, places we’ve been. He talks about his grandmother, about my own family history. He claims he’s talked toContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘How He’s Talked Lately’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Higher Ground’
Breathing heavily but gaining elevation, the tramp up the rocks that have been laid to raise you, the village church and shops shrinking away into miniature, the gentle hum of traffic and chatting tourists silenced, your face burning with the effort, your feet in your socks in a sweat, the faces smiling that have alreadyContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Higher Ground’”
MW Bewick 