She didn’t torch the place. Not yet. The others could have done it if they’d wanted. She fudged a tear. Anything more might have signalled guilt. Her predecessor, Gestas, would take the blame. They’d be happy to let him have it. They’d needed to crucify someone and Gestas, such an impenitent robber, the one she’dContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Gestas’”
Author Archives: MW Bewick
100-Word Fiction: ‘Association Games / B-Side’
There were words that disappeared. I contemplated whether it was better to forget them in any case, at this moment. In place of words, handshakes were greeted with smiles, flags were waved joyously. A scoreless draw of an association football game, with fans in fiesta mood, did not reflect the volatility of the nation statesContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Association Games / B-Side’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Association Games / A-Side’
We played word association games: Levant? Stump. Stump? Sounds. Sounds? Music magazine. Magazine? Cover mount. Cover mount? Flexidisc. Felxidisc? Vinyl. Vinyl? Black. Black? Black. Is this working? Sorry can we go back to Stump? Stump? Stump? Chart Show. Chart Show? Channel 4. Channel 4? TV. TV? Music. Music? Indie. Indie? Sounds. Sounds? Stump. Stump? IceContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Association Games / A-Side’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Composition at a Toumani and Sidiki Diabate Concert’
It is boat season and migrating humans attempt more perilous journeys across the Mediterranean. Europe is a dream but not always a destiny. Paper-sketched holding centres are a plan for refugees: some sand-blown pop-ups in north Africa and the Middle East – not a solution, just a siesta for peace. News from the front lineContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Composition at a Toumani and Sidiki Diabate Concert’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Populist Trick’
In a pub, the winner of a popularity contest, as captured in a reporter’s photograph, balances an empty pint glass on his head and grins a rubbery wet slop of a grin. In the background, unwitting members of the public, alongside some of the man’s friends, are also grinning. Their mirth has been caused byContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Populist Trick’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cottage’
Can you see it? asked James. Corrina was squinting into the May sunlight. It was somewhere over there but I can’t make it out exactly. But the cottage was around here? Here? Somewhere over there, near the horizon, past the trees, where it’s all blue with the distance and haze. We could drive around theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cottage’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Clouded Out’
A broad-brimmed black felt hat lies on the tracks below the bridge that crosses the railway line on Shoreditch High Street. They sip sweet creamy coffee, shuffle and talk of failed interviews and jobs that didn’t work out. A man by the Tube shouts ‘Freedom out!’ or perhaps ‘Free Time Out!’ They add a pre-meetingContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Clouded Out’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Thomas Piketty Sells Out’
On the bookshop’s basement computer A deleted message relates That Thomas Piketty has sold out. The email from the book’s printer Suggests a second run is required – But the price of paper shows a long upward trend. Customers leave empty-handed. Along the city’s cigarette streets Workers stroke their palms And bud their ears inContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Thomas Piketty Sells Out’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘720 Sentences’
07:20 is the time he leaves the house, pulls on his coat, blows a kiss, says goodbye, gets embraced, steps onto the concrete, breathes the air, checks his pockets, flicks his hair, buttons his coat, checks his phone, walks down the street for the last time. 07:20 is the time she closes the door, waitsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘720 Sentences’”
100-Word Fiction: ’18 Sackings’
The man who did too little. The man who did too much. The woman left in the frame. The woman who ducked the issue. The man who spoke too late. The man who spoke too soon. The woman with the loudest voice. The women you never heard. The man who no one liked. The manContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ’18 Sackings’”
MW Bewick 